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The Foreign Fighters Problem, Recent Trends and Case Studies: Selected Essays

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The Foreign Fighters Problem, Recent Trends and Case Studies: Selected Essays Program on National Security at the FOREIGN POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE Al-Qaeda al-Shabaab AQIM AQAP Central The Foreign Fighters Problem, Recent Trends and Case Studies: Selected Essays Edited by Michael P. Noonan Managing Director, Program on National Security April 2011 Copyright Foreign Policy Research Institute (www.fpri.org). If you would like to be added to our mailing list, send an email to [email protected], including your name, address, and any affiliation. For further information or to inquire about membership in FPRI, please contact Alan Luxenberg, [email protected] or (215) 732-3774 x105. FPRI 1528 Walnut Street, Suite 610 • Philadelphia, PA 19102-3684 Tel. 215-732-3774 • Fax 215-732-4401 About FPRI Founded in 1955, the Foreign Policy Research Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization devoted to bringing the insights of scholarship to bear on the development of policies that advance U.S. national interests. We add perspective to events by fitting them into the larger historical and cultural context of international politics. About FPRI’s Program on National Security The end of the Cold War ushered in neither a period of peace nor prolonged rest for the United States military and other elements of the national security community. The 1990s saw the U.S. engaged in Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, and numerous other locations. The first decade of the 21st century likewise has witnessed the reemergence of a state of war with the attacks on 9/11 and military responses (in both combat and non-combat roles) globally. While the United States remains engaged against foes such as al-Qa`ida and its affiliated movements, other threats, challengers, and opportunities remain on the horizon. The FPRI’s Program on National Security examines contemporary and emergent threats and opportunities to American security through a wide aperture. In particular the program focuses on: • American grand strategy • The contemporary and future global geostrategic environment that effect the U.S. and its interests • The ends (strategies), ways (organization and methods of force employment), and means (force structures and capabilities) that impact the use of military force • Counterterrorism and homeland security • Development, diplomacy, and informational issues that contribute to the holistic implementation of strategy. FPRI, 1528 Walnut Street, Suite 610, Philadelphia, PA 19102-3684 www.fpri.org TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 1 by Michael P. Noonan, FPRI The Foreign Fighter Problem: Recent Trends And Case Studies .............................................................................. 2 by Tally Helfont, FPRI Foreign Fighters—Recent Trends .......................................................................................................................... 10 by Barak Mendelsohn, Haverford College and FPRI Senior Scholar. Al Shabaab’s Foreign Threat to Somalia .............................................................................................................. 25 by David Shinn, George Washington University Foreign Influences and Shifting Horizons: The Ongoing Evolution of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ............... 39 by J. Peter Pham, The Atlantic Council From Periphery to Core: Foreign Fighters and the Evolution of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ..................... 55 by Christopher Swift, University of Virginia Law School’s Center for National Security Law On the Trail of the ‘Lions of Islam’: Foreign Fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan,1980-2010 .......................... 69 by Brian Glyn Williams, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth FPRI, 1528 Walnut Street, Suite 610, Philadelphia, PA 19102-3684 www.fpri.org The Foreign Fighter Problem On the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines have confronted third-party national combatants. Known as “foreign fighters,” these individuals have gained deadly skills and connections that can be exported or exploited to devastating effect in other locations.1 Over the past two decades, the foreign fighters phenomenon has grown after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979—to the ethnically cleansed fields of the Balkans to Chechnya and beyond. But this is not a new problem.2 This report is the second volume of findings from an important series of FPRI conferences on the so-called foreign fighter problem. These conferences have brought together leading experts in the field to examine and discuss this phenomenon from different ideational and disciplinary perspectives. While the first volume dealt primarily with functional areas of the phenomenon, this edition focuses primarily on the case studies of al Qaeda franchises or allied affiliates in Somalia, the Maghreb, Yemen, and Afghanistan/Pakistan. Today, the outcomes of the geopolitical revolution unfolding across North Africa and the Middle East are far from clear, the problems associated with al Qaeda and its affiliated movement are likely to breed havoc for the foreseeable future across the region. Furthermore, the veterans spawned by such conflicts undoubtedly will present problems for international security writ large, too. The cases and phenomenon analyzed here may well provide important lessons for both those interested in the regions under examination here, but also for others who examine international challenges far removed from the study of radical extremism of the al Qaeda variety. 1As will be seen in Barak Mendelsohn’s contribution in this e-book the term foreign fighter may also be applied to, for example, local nationals who have acquired their fighting skills and experience in foreign conflicts. 2 David Malet has shown that foreign fighters were, for instance, actively engaged in conflicts in the 19th century. See his “Foreign Fighters: Transnational Identity in Civil Conflicts,” Ph.D. dissertation, The George Washington University, 2009. 1 | FPRI Foreign Policy Research Institute E-Notes A Catalyst for Ideas Distributed via Email and Posted at www.fpri.org November 2010 THE FOREIGN FIGHTER PROBLEM: RECENT TRENDS AND CASE STUDIES By Tally Helfont, Rapporteur FPRI’s Program on National Security held a conference on the foreign fighter problem, September 27-28, 2010, in Washington, DC at the Reserve Officers Association, which cosponsored the conference. General William Ward, Commander of US Africa Command, delivered a videotaped message to the conferees, and Terence Ford, Director of Intelligence and Knowledge Development for US Africa Command, delivered the keynote. Audio and video files of the proceedings are posted on FPRI’s website at: http://www.fpri.org/research/nationalsecurity/foreignfighters1009. Selected papers from the conference will be published in Orbis and other outlets. Samuel Helfont, Tally Helfont, Michael Horowitz, and Michael P. Noonan, served as panel moderators. FPRI’s Program on National Security is supported by a contribution from FPRI’s Vice Chairman John M. Templeton, Jr. The views expressed herein are those of the speakers and should not be construed to represent any agency of the U.S. government or other institution. What follows is a summary of the keynote address, major panel presentations and discussions. VIDEO MESSAGE In a video message played at the outset of the conference, General William E. Ward, Commander of U.S. Africa Command, said he believed “very strongly that the foreign fighter phenomenon is a measurable threat to global peace and security.” He stressed that the degree to which these organizations operate globally is an important aspect of the current phenomenon. Through the “recruiting, indoctrinating, training, equipping, and employing individuals in different locations around the globe,” foreign fighters have been able to exploit “vulnerabilities in under-governed areas and even within relatively well- developed nations.” Gen. Ward cautioned that, “like many places, Africa is vulnerable” and referenced some of the dilemmas that have arisen in trying to stem the foreign fighter problem. In closing he applauded the aims of the conference, which he said “continues some of the important and insightful dialogue from last year’s [foreign fighter] conference,” and expressed his eagerness to hear its results. KEYNOTE ADDRESS Terrance Ford, Director of Intelligence and Knowledge Development for U.S. Africa Command, delivered the conference’s keynote address. Ford noted that “globalization has changed how foreign fighter networks operate throughout the world,” enabling these networks to be far more efficient, lethal, and clandestine. Likewise, Ford pointed out that foreign fighters “often see themselves—and are perceived by some others—as freedom fighters.” Motivated by ideology, religion, oppression and social injustice, these fighters take up arms to further what they consider a noble cause and “bring a fervor to the battlefield that is lacking in mercenaries and combatants.” He cautioned, “we should be mindful of these attributes as we craft anti-recruitment strategies” and “prepare operational plans to militarily defeat them.” Finally, Ford emphasized the need for countries to develop “self-sufficient security apparatuses capable of defending individual state borders.” He added that regional cooperation between stronger and weaker nations in defense of common borders would serve “to deny the safe havens on which the foreign fighter networks rely.”
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