Foreign Fighters and the Extreme Right: Tracking Far-Right Volunteers Beyond the Ukraine War

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Daniel Koehler (GIRDS, Germany) Miroslav Mareš (Masaryk University, Czech Republic)

Foreign Fighters and the Extreme Right

Tracking Far-Right Volunteers Beyond the Ukraine War

Daniel Koehler (GIRDS, Germany), Miroslav Mareš (Masaryk University, Czech Republic)

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
29 October 2025

Ethnic studies; Fascism & Nazism; Terrorism, armed struggle; Armed conflict; Warfare & defence

Series: Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far 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.

Edited by: Daniel Koehler (GIRDS Germany), Miroslav Mareš (Masaryk University, Czech Republic)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9781032013930
ISBN 10: 1032013931
Series: Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 29 October 2025
Audience: College/higher education , College/higher education , Further / Higher Education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

1. Introduction: The Relevance of Studying Extreme Right-Wing Foreign Fighters 2. History of Extreme Right-Wing Foreign Fighters 3. Extreme Right-Wing Foreign Fighters: Challenges For Law Enforcement 4. Not an Al-Qaeda for the Far Right: the Azov Battalion/Regiment and Its Transnational Exploits 5. Multinational Separatist Units in the Ukraine Conflict 6. Between Assad and the Rebels: Far-Right Foreign Fighters in Syria 7. Case Study: Germany 8. “The Dog that Didn’t Bark” – British extreme right foreign fighters 9. A Trajectory of Scandinavian Foreign Fighters – Cases and Patterns 10. Extreme Right-Wing Foreign Fighters and Volunteers from Italy 11. Case Study: The United States 12. Russian far-right foreign fighters in Donbas 13. Foreign Fighters and the Far-Right in South-Eastern Europe 14. Case Study: Eastern Europe and the Caucasus 15. Right-wing extremist foreign fighters in other European countries and areas 16. Conclusion: Extreme Right-Wing Foreign Fighters in the comparative perspective

Daniel Koehler is Director of the German Institute on Radicalization and De-Radicalization Studies. He specializes in research on terrorism, radicalization and deradicalization. He is the Editor in Chief of the Journal for Deradicalization. Miroslav Mareš is Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Social Studies of the Masaryk University in Brno. He specializes in research on violent extremism, hybrid threats and security policy, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe.