RT Article
T1 Does democracy or personal freedom affect the flow and return of IS foreign fighters?
JF European journal on criminal policy and research
VO 28
IS 2
SP 327
OP 355
A1 Gouda, Moamen
A2 Hanafy, Shimaa
LA English
YR 2022
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1839951907
AB A considerable number of foreign fighters who joined the Islamic State (IS) came from developed countries enjoying high levels of democracy and personal freedom. Even after the demise of the Islamic State, the IS "returnees" remain a source of severe security risk globally. Many countries, especially those with a considerable number of IS fighters and returnees, face the challenge of striking the right balance between protecting national security against IS terrorism and preserving fundamental democratic institutions. This paper examines the effect of democracy and personal freedom on foreign fighters joining IS in Syria and Iraq. We also examine whether democracy and/or personal freedom affect the fraction of IS fighters returning home. Whereas the effect of democracy appears to be inconclusive, our cross-country regressions show that countries with a higher level of personal freedom (i) had a significantly larger fraction of their population joining IS, and (ii) receive a significantly larger percentage share of returning IS fighters. Our results are robust across different model specifications and account for possible collinearity concerns.
K1 Alliances
K1 Conflict Resolution
K1 D74 Conflict
K1 Democracy
K1 Economic nationalism
K1 F51 International conflicts
K1 F52 National security
K1 Foreign fighters
K1 Freedom
K1 H56 National security and war
K1 Islamic State
K1 Negotiations
K1 P48 Legal institution
K1 Revolutions
K1 Sanctions
K1 Terrorism
DO 10.1007/s10610-021-09499-y