Leiden University Student Repository

Päivänsalo, Olli (2018)

From Safe Havens to Bloody Battlefields: A Case Study of the Backgrounds and Motivations of Nordic Foreign Fighters in Kurdish Factions in the Conflicts in Iraq and Syria

Master thesis | Middle Eastern Studies (MA)

The number of residents of Nordic countries, who have joined the contemporary conflicts of Iraq and Syria as foreign fighters, is high in relation to their populations. While most of these individuals have indeed travelled to the conflict zones to become foreign fighters in the ranks of ISIS or other Islamist groups, there are also Nordic residents who have joined factions fighting against the Islamists. This thesis studies the background factors and motivational reasons in becoming a foreign fighter of 26 individuals from Nordic countries in Kurdish factions in the conflicts of Iraq and Syria, combining both primary and secondary sources in the research and linking the findings of the research into existing literature in the emerging field of foreign fighter studies.

Iraq

Syria

Kurds

Foreign fighters

Nordic countries

Author

Päivänsalo, Olli

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Modern Middle East Studies

Supervisors

Calculli, Marina

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en