Mobilisation of foreign fighters in the former Soviet Union

‘From Russia with War’ is a collaborative research project that draws on years of pilot studies on violent mobilisation of non-state armed groups by research team members from the University of Glasgow, University of Ottawa, and Charles University Prague. This interdisciplinary research project combines the research team members’ joint experience of conducting high-risk ethnographic fieldwork amongst former and active members of armed groups in order to provide an in-depth explanation as to why individuals mobilise to become foreign fighters in the context of the former Soviet Union. Our goal is to explain motivations to participate in armed conflict outside of an individual’s country of citizenship beyond political and religious factors, examining sociocultural, perception-based and opportunities centred causes of individual mobilisation. We examine both why individuals from countries outside the post-Soviet region travel to participate in armed conflicts in the former Soviet Union, and why post-Soviet volunteers travel to conflicts outside the region.

Project team of FSV UK (1)

prof. PhDr. Emil Aslan, Ph.D.

Co-investigator at FSV

+420 296 824 654

emil.aslan@fsv.cuni.cz