Foreign Fighters and the Extreme Right

Foreign Fighters and the Extreme Right is the first comprehensive academic study taking an in-depth look at white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists leaving their home countries to join armed groups fighting in civil wars and other armed conflicts.

The phenomenon known as ‘Foreign Fighters’ has so far mainly been looked at in the context of Jihadist groups like ISIS recruiting fighters from all over the world for the Syrian and Iraqi conflicts. Widely unnoticed, the war ongoing in Ukraine has also resulted in a stream of foreign recruits but with a totally different ideology. Right-wing extremists from many countries have travelled to Ukraine in order to take part in the armed conflict against Russia. Many have already returned to their countries of origin, mostly unnoticed and unhindered by law enforcement agencies. Looking more carefully, one also can see a much longer history of right-wing extremist foreign fighting in various conflicts, for example, the Yugoslavian war, the Algerian conflict and in South America in the aftermath of the Vietnam war. Bringing together world- leading experts on right- wing extremism and terrorism, this collection of extreme right-wing foreign fighting case studies since the end of the Second World War sheds light on a topic with significant importance, which has yet remained mostly in the dark.

This book will be of interest to all those with an interest in small wars, terrorism, peace and conflict studies and right-wing extremism.

1. Introduction: The Relevance of Studying Extreme Right-Wing Foreign Fighters

Daniel Koehler and Miroslav Mareš

2. History of Extreme Right-Wing Foreign Fighters

Miroslav Mareš, Josef Kraus and Věra Stojarová

3. Extreme Right-Wing Foreign Fighters: Challenges For Law Enforcement

Veronika Bílková and Anna Richterová

4. Not an Al-Qaeda for the Far Right: the Azov Battalion/Regiment and Its Transnational Exploits

Kacper Rekawek

5. Multinational Separatist Units in the Ukraine Conflict

Martin Laryš

6. Between Assad and the Rebels: Far-Right Foreign Fighters in Syria

Ariel Koch and Maeve Holmes

7. Case Study: Germany

Daniel Koehler

8. “The Dog that Didn’t Bark”: British Extreme Right Foreign Fighters

Graham Macklin

9. A Trajectory of Scandinavian Foreign Fighters: Cases and Patterns

Mikkel Bøgeskov Eriksen and Chris Holmsted Larsen

10. Extreme Right-Wing Foreign Fighters and Volunteers from Italy

Francesco Marone

11. Case Study: The United States

David Malet

12. Russian far-right foreign fighters in Donbas

Martin Laryš

13. Foreign Fighters and the Far-Right in South-Eastern Europe

Jiří Němec and Věra Stojarová

14. Case Study: Eastern Europe and the Caucasus

Josef Kraus

15. Right-Wing Extremist Foreign Fighters in Other European Countries and Areas

Miroslav Mareš

16. Conclusion: Extreme Right-Wing Foreign Fighters in the Comparative Perspective

Daniel Koehler and Miroslav Mareš