Dr. Matthew Levitt, member of the Research Advisory Council, shares what he is reading on foreign fighters.

"In December, President Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, sparking heated debate on what to do about ISIS foreign fighters detained by Kurdish-led forces. The President in February underscored this challenge, tweeting that European nations should repatriate and prosecute the European citizens detained by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SFD), adding that “the alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them.”  My colleague Aaron Zelin and I wrote a piece about this at the time, “Repatriating Western Jihadists: The Impact of U.S. Syria Policy,” and since then I have been meeting with U.S. and European officials about the challenges of repatriating and prosecuting and reintegrating ISIS foreign fighters—and their families and orphaned children—into society.  After a few trips to Europe this spring, I started digging into an array of studies and reports on this issue and also re-reading reports going back to 2014. Here is what I am reading on the conundrum of repatriating and prosecuting ISIS foreign fighters and their families."

Barrett, Richard. “Beyond the Caliphate: Foreign Fighters and the Threat of Returnees” The Soufan Center, October 2017. https://thesoufancenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Beyond-the-Caliphate-Foreign-Fighters-and-the-Threat-of-Returnees-TSC-Report-October-2017-v3.pdf 

Cook, Joana, and Gina Vale. “From Daesh to ‘Diaspora’ II: The Challenges Posed by Women and Minors after the Fall of the Caliphate” International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), July 5, 2019. https://ctc.usma.edu/daesh-diaspora-challenges-posed-women-minors-fall-caliphate/ 

“Guidelines for Addressing the Threats and Challenges of Foreign Terrorist Fighters Within a Human Rights Framework” OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, 2018. https://www.osce.org/odihr/393503?download=true 

Holmer, Georgia, and Adrian Shtuni. “Returning Foreign Fighters and the Reintegration Imperative” United States Institute of Peace, 2017. https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/2017-03/sr402-returning-foreign-fighters-and-the-reintegration-imperative.pdf 

Jenkins, Brian Michael. “When Jihadis Come Marching Home: The Terrorist Threat Posed by Westerners Returning from Syria and Iraq” Rand Corporation, 2014. https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE130-1.html 

Lister, Charles. “Returning Foreign Fighters: Criminalization or Reintegration?” Brookings Institution, 2015. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/En-Fighters-Web.pdf 

Lynch III, Thomas F., Michael Bouffard, Kelsey King, and Graham Vickowski. “The Return of Foreign Fighters to Central Asia: Implications for U.S. Counterterrorism Policy Institute for National Strategic Studies” Strategic Perspectives 21, October 2016. https://ndupress.ndu.edu/Portals/68/Documents/stratperspective/inss/Strategic-Perspectives-21.pdf 

Mehra, Tanya, and Christophe Paulussen. “The Repatriation of Foreign Fighters and Their Families: Options, Obligations, Morality and Long-Term Thinking" International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, April 2019. https://icct.nl/publication/the-repatriation-of-foreign-fighters-and-their-families-options-obligations-morality-and-long-term-thinking/ 

Renard, Thomas. “Returnees in the Maghreb: Comparing Policies on Returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia” Egmont, Egmont Paper 107, April 2019. http://www.egmontinstitute.be/content/uploads/2019/04/EP107-returnees-in-the-Maghreb.pdf?type=pdf 

Roithmaier, Kilian. “Germany and its Returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters: New Loss of Citizenship Law and the Broader German Repatriation Landscape” International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, April 2019.  https://icct.nl/publication/germany-and-its-returning-foreign-terrorist-fighters-new-loss-of-citizenship-law-and-the-broader-german-repatriation-landscape/ 

Scherrer, Amandine. “The Return of Foreign Fighters to EU Soil" European Parliamentary Research Service, 2018. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/621811/EPRS_STU(2018)621811_EN.pdf 

See, Sylvene. “Returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters: A Catalyst for Recidivism Among Disengaged Terrorists International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research” Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses, June 2018. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/26435161.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Ab3c5542a9030164be464e2905404105b 

Simcox, Robin. “Foreign Fighters: The Rule of Law Is the Best Response to Islamist Fighters from Western Countries” Heritage Foundation, February 2018. https://www.heritage.org/sites/default/files/2018-02/BG3288.pdf 

“The Challenge of Returning and Relocating Foreign Terrorist Fighters: Research Perspectives United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate,” CTED Trends Report, March 2018. https://www.un.org/sc/ctc/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/CTED-Trends-Report-March-2018.pdf  

Weine, Stevan, and Eric Rosand. “Repatriating ISIS Families: An Opportunity to Show that ‘Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism’ Can Work” Just Security, June 2019. https://www.justsecurity.org/64567/repatriating-isis-families-an-opportunity-to-show-that-preventing-and-countering-violent-extremism-can-work/