Foreign Fighters – aspiring and returning : Prevent, protect, pursue and respond 

This research resulted in a foreign fighters analytical framework aiming to identify the reasons for an increase of foreign fighters travelling from the European Union to jihadist organisations in Syria and Iraq. The theoretical framework is built on EU’s Counterterrorism strategy (ECTS) on prevention, protection, pursuing and responding towards terrorism. The theoretical framework has in this essay been applied on ECTS in order to search explanation to the phenomenon of foreign fighters in the EU. The analytical framework is built on the concepts operationalized in the theoretical framework in order to obtain further clarifications on foreign fighters in relation to the EU. The results and analysis of this essay show that ECTS somewhat approaches the phenomenon of foreign fighters. However, further analysis shows that the strategy does not completely explain the phenomenon of foreign fighters nor entirely contemplate preventing, protecting, pursuing or responding towards foreign fighters. The contributions that could be drawn from the essay are mainly interpretive that should be kept in mind when discussing the ECTS in relation to foreign fighters