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ICCT in the Media: Thomas Renard on Foreign Fighters and the Kurdish YPG

March 21, 2022

On 16 March, ICCT Director Thomas Renard was interviewed by Mondiaal Nieuws for an article on foreign fighters in the Kurdish YPG, a Syrian-Kurdish militia in northeastern Syria fighting against ISIS. Thomas discussed the YPG's PR strategy, ideology, and the diversity of foreign fighters' motivations for mobilisation. Thomas also discussed the possibility of returning foreign fighters suffering from post-traumatic stress and their resultant potential risk of endangering themselves or others upon their return.

You can read the full article below.

 

Related Readings:

Roy van Zuijdewijn, J. de. and Edwin Bakker. Returning Western Foreign Fighters: The Case of Afghanistan, Bosnia and Somalia. The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 20 June 2014.

Dawson, Lorne L. The Demise of the Islamic State and the Fate of its Western Foreign Fighters: Six Things to Consider. The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 6 June 2018.

Whiteside, C. Political Primacy, Strategic Risks, and ISIL after the Caliphate. The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, 9 October 2017.  

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