Foreign fighters involvement in national and international wars: A historical survey

Abstract

The term ‘foreign fighters’ is difficult to define in a straightforward and exhaustive way, since it is a new phenomenon that has evolved in recent years. In the past the term ‘volunteer’ applied to those nationals and foreigners who joined a threatened government, a non State actor, a minority group seeking to come to power or national or diverse ethnic groups seeking their independence. This placed the emphasis on the individuals: civilians and/or former (or foreign) soldiers. As the historical examples enshrined in this chapter will show, in the past, to a greater extent than today, the difficulty in defining a foreign volunteer, a mercenary or a fighter in a war, civil war, revolution, liberation or independence struggle, lay mainly in the changing structure of institutional powers, State structures and types of governments. The present contribution will provide a survey of the last two and half centuries, starting from the Age of Revolutions, when the independence of the United States and the overthrow of the French monarchy paved the way for contemporary history, until the more recent events resulting from the end of Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Through this overview the chapter aims at enhancing the understanding of the range of typologies and experiences that these different kinds of volunteers had in conflicts in foreign lands, in the hope of shedding light on the current challenges posed by this phenomenon.