The making of European foreign fighters: Identity, social media and virtual radicalization

Abstract

The phenomenon of foreign fighters is highly topical and hotly debated by almost everyone including journalists, pundits, and top public officials. There are a number of vital questions to which the global society desperately and hastily seeks answers: Who are these young men and women joining the civil war in Syria? What are their motivations to fight a foreign war? What is their emergent 'hypergood?' What is the role of social media in their radicalization? How can a radicalized Muslim self be contained? This study examines the case of European foreign fighters by employing a threefold analytical framework of identity claims, meaning-making/motives and means of radicalization. The first section briefly investigates identity and motives of the European citizen fighters for joining the Syrian Civil War. The second section analyzes the impact of social media on the radicalization process, the threats they pose to their home countries, and the role of Turkey's borders plays as a gateway into the Syrian War theater. The last section provides a discussion of the findings and offers a set of responses necessary to counter and withstand the tribulations of life with foreign fighters. Rather than a pedantic enquiry, this study hence also seeks to provide a set of practical answers to pressing questions above.