Abstract for: Fighting Foreign Fighters. But What About Potential and Returning Foreign Fighters?

Foreign fighters, potential foreign fighters, and returned foreign fighters have occupied the European news bulletins for many months. Foreign fighters voluntarily join fighting parties in conflict zones, like in Syria and Iraq. Both potential foreign fighters and returning foreign fighters from these and other regions directly pose a substantial threat to Western nations. And actual foreign fighters pose a direct foreign threat as well as an indirect domestic threat. In spite of the fact that the general public opinion supports the perspective that there is a domestic foreign-fighter related security problem, perspectives between and within Western nations as to the causes and solutions differ. In this paper, we present SD models that correspond to three of these perspectives and simulate them to find policies that are effective across all perspectives.