Foreign Fighters

Transnational Identity in Civil Conflicts

David Malet

The first comparative analysis of historical foreign fighter insurgencies
Only study that compares Islamists with other foreign fighter movements
Based on original interviews with foreign fighters and on rare archival material from conflicts that have received little or no study in the international relations or political science literature

New to this Edition:

Afterword: The Foreign Fighter State
New Figures
New Tables

Foreign Fighters

Transnational Identity in Civil Conflicts

David Malet

Description

In conflict zones around the world, the phenomenon of foreign insurgents fighting on behalf of local rebel groups is a common occurrence. They have been an increasing source of concern because they engage in deadlier attacks than local fighters do. They also violate international laws and norms of citizenship. And because of their zeal, their adversaries - often the most powerful countries in the world - are frequently incapable of deterring them.

Foreign Fighters have made headlines in recent wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, and the term is widely equated with militant Islamists. However, foreign fighters are not a new phenomenon. Throughout modern history, outside combatants have fought on behalf of causes ranging from international communism to aggrieved ethnic groups. Analyzing the long history of foreign fighters in the modern era helps us understand why they join insurgencies, what drives their behavior, and what policymakers can do in response.

In Foreign Fighters, David Malet examines how insurgencies recruit individuals from abroad who would seem to have no direct connection to a distant war. Remarkably, the same recruiting strategies have been employed successfully in all foreign fighter cases, regardless of the particular circumstances of a conflict. Malet also catalogues foreign fighters in civil wars over the past two centuries, providing data indicating that they are disproportionately successful and growing in number. Detailed case histories constructed from archival material and original interviews demonstrate the same recruitment patterns in highly diverse conflicts including the Texas Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the Israeli War of Independence, and the Afghanistan War. The results show that foreign fighters from Davy Crockett to George Orwell to Osama bin Laden create and respond to strategically crafted appeals to defend transnational communities under dire threat.

Foreign Fighters

Transnational Identity in Civil Conflicts

David Malet

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1: Why We Fight (Elsewhere)
2: A History of Foreign Fighters
3: The Texas Revolution (1835-1836)
4: The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
5: The Israeli War of Independence (1947-1949)
6: Afghanistan (1978-1992) and Beyond
Conclusion: Responses to Transnational Insurgency
Appendix A: Development of the Term "Foreign Fighter"
Appendix B: Observation Set Coding
Bibliography

Foreign Fighters

Transnational Identity in Civil Conflicts

David Malet

Author Information

David Malet is Director of the Security Policy Studies Program of the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs

Foreign Fighters

Transnational Identity in Civil Conflicts

David Malet

Reviews and Awards

"One of the reasons for this book's importance is that - when it was first published in 2013 - it was one of the first studies on the phenomenon of volunteer foreign fighters, with its findings still relevant to understanding how this problem has evolved since then." -- Joshua Sinai, Perspectives on Terrorism

"[A] thorough exploration of why and how foreign fighters get involved in wars far away from their homes..." -- Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs

"...undoubtedly offers important insights for policymakers, military strategists and scholars alike." -- Ilana Rothkopf, LSE Review of Books

"In Malet's view, modern transnational jihadist fighters are part of a long historical tradition that includes Communists like Che Guevara and William Alexander Morgan who fought in the Cuban Revolution, Zionists like future haircare pioneer Vidal Sassoon who fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, anti-fascists like Andre Malraux and George Orwell who fought in the Spanish Civil War, Americans like Davy Crockett who fought in the Texas Revolution, or nationalist romantics Lord Byron, who fought in the Greek War of Independence." -- Joshua Keating, Foreign Policy