KOSOVO: The Foreign Fighter Phenomenon in Kosovo: Covering a Blind Spot
KOSOVO: The Foreign Fighter Phenomenon in Kosovo: Covering a Blind Spot

Author(s): Shpend Kursani, Arbër Fetiu
Subject(s): Civil Society, Islam studies, International relations/trade, Security and defense, Studies in violence and power, Radical sociology , Sociology of Religion, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Atlantska inicijativa: Udruženje za promicanje euroatlantskih integracija BiH
Keywords: Kosovo; foreign fighters; foreign battlefields; Middle Eastern conflicts; Syria; Iraq; Kosovo's Muslim population; radicalism; terrorism; extremism;
Summary/Abstract: The recent emergence of the foreign fighter phenomenon, which has entangled citizens of Kosovo, has attracted significant attention among policymakers, security analysts, and academics at the local and international levels. In Kosovo, the jihadist ideology linked to the phenomenon is unprecedented, at least insofar as its scale. Even the Afghan Wars (1978-1992 and 2001-present) and other Middle Eastern conflicts, which have attracted some 5,000 to 20,000 foreign fighters – many from Europe and the United States – have not inspired certain elements of Kosovo’s Muslim population like the recent conflict in Syria has. Many authors have pointed to the ease of travel and the proximity of the Syrian conflict as important factors in explaining the extraordinary numbers of European foreign fighters taking part in the war there. Yet, the Bosnian war (1992-1995), which attracted a few thousand fighters from around the world, including from other parts of Europe, did not attract fighters from Kosovo in any significant numbers, despite their even closer proximity and potential geostrategic interest in fighting Serbia. [...]

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