Program on National Security Conference

The Foreign Fighter Problem: Recent Trends and Case Studies

Sponsored by the Foreign Policy Research Institute and the Reserve Officers Association

Mon.-Tues., September 27–28, 2010 / Washington, D.C.

On the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines have confronted third-party national combatants. Known as “foreign fighters,” these individuals have gained deadly skills and connections that can be exported or exploited to devastating effect in other locations. Over the past two decades, the foreign fighters phenomenon has grown after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 to the ethnically cleansed fields of the Balkans to Chechnya and beyond. But this is not a new problem. This conference builds upon the findings of the FPRI’s first foreign fighters conference from the summer of 2009 and brings together recognized academic and analytical expertise in order examine recent trends in the foreign fighter phenomenon and also explore the particular cases of Somalia, the Maghreb, Yemen, and Afghanistan/Pakistan.

Welcoming Remarks