In recent decades, the concept of foreign fighters has been introduced to the media, law, and politics in relation to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. It was then associated with terrorist organizations, specifically ISIS, which polarized over 40,000 foreign fighters from 80 countries to join them in Iraq and Syria.
Historical Overview
In the Greek War of Independence(1821–1829), Europeans were the first to recruit foreign fighters. Over a century later, during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the extremist right-wing formed the "Corps of Volunteer Troops" (Corpo Truppe Volontarie) to fight alongside militant groups fighting for rightist General Francisco Franco against the Republican front.
US extremist rightists joined military organizations in several countries. Members of the White Nationalist Party (WNP) volunteered to fight for the Rhodesian Security Forces in the Zimbabwe War of Independence/Rhodesian Bush War (1964–1979). During the Nicaraguan Revolution (1978–1990), US paramilitary groups, such as Civilian Material Assistance (CMA), recruited extremist rightists.
It was during this time that far-right groups in Italy, such as the New force and National Vanguard, maintained close relations with right-wing totalitarian regimes in Europe. Members of these groups travelled to Greece, Spain, and Portugal for training and to acquire skills necessary for terrorist attacks in Italy. During the civil war in Yugoslavia (1991–2001), extremist rightists, including Greek fighters from the extremist right-wing movement “Golden Dawn” and extremist rightist foreign fighters from Croatian military and paramilitary forces joined the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) and engaged in the massacres committed against Bosniak Muslims, namely the Srebrenica genocide in 1995.
In recent years, far-right foreign fighters engaged in several conflicts, particularly in Syria and Ukraine. Observers assert that some of the far-right foreign fighters who fought in Syria and Ukraine (Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014) migrated to other conflict-inflicted countries. For example, flocks of those fighters now join groups engaged in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Moreover, members of the Imperial Legion, the militant branch of the extreme-right Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), headed to Libya.
Warfighting Lab
Far-right foreign fighters use the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria as warfighting laboratories, raising concerns about these countries, particularly Ukraine, becoming the Afghanistan of the 1980s, breeding and training terrorist organisations in Central Europe.
The spread of white extremists on battlegrounds and their participation in combat provides them with significant experience in planning attacks and using arms and sophisticated warfare technologies, such as communications, encryption, and the use of cryptocurrencies for covert financing of their activities. According to former FBI counter-terrorism agent Ali Soufan, “Even before the Taliban fully took over, various extremist groups were running training camps there, the way they did before 9/11 ... For 12 years, we tried our best to ignore Afghanistan — until the horror of 9/11 finally forced us awake”. That is exactly what right-wing fighters are doing now. Jihadists took conflicts in Afghanistan, Chechnya, the Balkans, Iraq, and Syria as an opportunity to master combat tactics, employ technologies, perform actions, and enhance transnational networks. White supremacist extremists take Ukraine as a warfighting lab.
Following the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis in 2014, extreme rightists from neighboring countries joined both sides of the conflict. These organizations function in different ways. Some have connections directly to the government, while others have connections to independent paramilitary groups.
Despite the lack of accurate statistics, some estimates indicate that since 2014 nearly 2,000 far-right foreign fighters joined the conflict, mostly from Belarus and some from Germany, Serbia, France, Italy, USA, Australia, Poland, and Georgia, to fight on the Ukrainian side. Meanwhile, RIM was the most active extremist right-wing organization in Donbas. It maintains strong ties with other European far-right organizations, such as the Nordic Resistance Movement responsible for the 2017 attack on a center for asylum seekers in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2020, the US, followed by Canada in 2021, enlisted the movement as a terrorist organization.
Rightists in Syria
The far-right was involved in the war on terrorism even though some extremist rightists engaged in the same terrorism they claim to be fighting. The war in Syria has created a new battlefield for far-right fighters who flocked there to join various organizations, such as the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), and Christian militant groups aligned with the Syrian regime, such as the Assyrian Patriotic Party (APP), which traditionally represented the interests of Eastern Assyrians in the Khabur Valley along the Turkish borders; the Syriac Military Council in al-Hasakah Governorate in Syria; the Gozarto Protection Forces (GPF), an Assyrian militia based in Qamishli, Syria; and the Guardians of the Dawn, a coalition of Christian pro-government militias active in Southern Syria.
It is difficult to estimate the number of rightist foreign fighters in those organizations. However, some reports based on their profiles show that their average age is 32 and that only 3% of them are women. 73 out of 108 US rightist foreign fighters who were interviewed used to serve in the US army. Rightist foreign fighters revealed their motivations for fighting in Syria, including their desire for adventure, animosity towards Muslims, the desire to defend Christian minorities, rejection of economic problems, and opposition to US foreign policy. Far-right foreign fighters supported al-Assad’s regime and fought for Syrian and Russian ally groups. Norwegian and Swedish foreign fighters received military training and equipment from the Russian armed forces in 2017, then were included in the pro-Syrian government forces. British and Spanish rightist fighters joined governmental and non-governmental organizations opposing ISIS.
The mutual support between al-Assad’s fighters and far-right foreign fighters has fueled the flow of foreign fighters to Syria. This alliance was supported by European right-wing organizations. For instance, CasaPound Italia, a former Italian neo-fascist political party, repeatedly announced its support for the Syrian President. Other far-right parties in Europe, such as the British National Party (BNP) and the National Rebirth of Poland/National Revival of Poland (NOP), also announced their support for al-Assad.
Terrorist Figures
Many rightist foreign fighters abroad have become role models and examples to their peers who have not left their countries. For example, in his statement, Norwegian right-wing terrorist Anders Breivik, who carried out two terrorist attacks in Oslo and on the island of Utoya on 22 July 2011, killing 70 and injuring 319, mentioned the war in Yugoslavia several times and praised the crimes and massacres committed by right-wing armed groups loyal to Serbia, stating that “Good becomes evil and evil becomes good. In Oslo, aggressive cultures like Islam will increasingly predominate, spreading like cancer”.
Brenton Tarrant, the right-wing extremist who executed the Christchurch massacre against Muslim worshippers on 15 March 2019, referred to the war in Yugoslavia with racist slogans on his rifle. They were quoted in an extremist nationalist Serbian song celebrating Radovan Karadžić who committed terrible crimes of genocide against Muslims in Bosnia. These two examples demonstrate how the participation of far-right foreign fighters in conflict zones has generated heroes from the extremist right-wing.
Future Risk
Counter-terrorism professionals and experts predict that those far-right foreign fighters shall cause a huge security crisis in the short or long run and that their return shall create a complex problem. There is much controversy among scholars and professionals over the most effective counter measures, taking into account the obstacles that still arise regarding the return of foreign fighters who fought with ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
The discord stems from the legal definition of “foreign fighters”. UN Security Council resolution no. (2178) of 2014 defines “foreign fighters” as “individuals who travel to a State other than their States of residence or nationality for the purpose of the perpetration, planning, or preparation of, or participation in, terrorist acts or the providing or receiving of terrorist training, including in connection with armed conflict.” This definition has become a bone of contention, where the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) argued that associating armed conflicts with terrorism might be wrong and may lead to categorizing all non-state actors as terrorist bodies.
The identity of foreign fighters is not the only source of disagreement. Other, more serious threats exist. When foreign fighters enter war zones, violence increases, particularly against civilians. They gain hands-on experience with weapons and military planning. Foreign fighters from various countries gather in conflict zones to form transnational links between individuals and extremist right-wing organisations. When they return to their home countries, they polarize others, form cells and networks that provide financial and logistical support to potential peer fighters, exacerbate social polarization, and promote lone wolf terrorism patterns.
Other concerns also arise over the growth of extremism among upholders of extremist right-wing ideologies due to the rising numbers of rightist non-violent groups leaving the political sphere and using violence for political purposes. This is evident in USA, for example, where intelligence and law enforcement agencies warned against the huge threat of violent extremists who have racist and ethnic motives, particularly white supremacists. They revealed that in the past 4 years, the violence of foreign fighters has surpassed that of other terrorist groups and has become a predominant pattern of terrorism in the US. This prompted US President Joe Biden to develop a strategic plan to counter this domestic type of terrorism.