event
Book Launch
Thursday
01
December
"FOREIGN FIGHTERS AND INTERNATIONAL PEACE", JOINING GLOBAL JIHAD AND MARCHING BACK HOME

"Foreign Fighters and International Peace", Joining Global Jihad and Marching Back Home

, -

Auditorium A2, Geneva Graduate Institute

This book sheds light on the emergence, roots and gradual change of jihadism and exposes its detrimental impact on human lives. The author collected insightful interviews with ISIS fighters and also with women who joined ISIS. The book analyzes root causes and motivations of people based on the firsthand information and proposes the non-enigma cycles radicalization theory, and argues that two main cycles- grievances and resentment, and the radical ideology are the most significant.

The book addresses the current situation with 70,000 women and children, who were family members of ISIS fighters, trapped in the desert following the defeat of the terrorist group in Syria and Iraq. The work also analyzes incentives of those who joined ISIS, nature of the jihadist ideology, emergence of a family jihad, roles of women and children within a so-called caliphate, and state policies to deal with captured ISIS fighters and their family members. The author gives detailed information on post-ISIS lives of women and children, who were family members of ISIS fighters who currently held in the desert in Northeast Syria. Detailed and vivid depiction of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in these camps presents the readers a clear understanding of the extent, intensity, and importance of the issue at hand and is what makes this book such a compelling.

Add to Calendar
Add to calendar

Discussants
 

Cholpon_Orozobekova

Ms. Cholpon Orozobekova, Author and Director, The Bulan Institute

  • Ms. Cholpon Orozobekova is a researcher and terrorism expert. Currently, she is a director of the Bulan Institute for Peace Innovations, a research institute based in Geneva. She works closely with the UNOCT and UN special mandates contributing to projects on Prosecution, Rehabilitation and Reintegration of foreign fighters. Before joining the Bulan Institute, she worked with UN OHCHR, ISHR, RFE/RL, the Diplomate Magazine, IWPR and Jamestown Foundation. Ms. Orozobekova holds three Master degrees from Geneva-based public universities. She also lectures at the GCSP for Preventing Violent Extremism course as a guest speaker.
     

Mehmet Balci_Photo

Mr. Mehmet Balci, Co-Director, Fight for Humanity

  • Mr. Mehmet Balci has more than 15 years of experience in humanitarian work in the Middle East, South Caucasus and Latin America Regions. His work has been focused on protection of civilians in armed conflicts, the protection of children and led programmes promoting international humanitarian norms to protect civilians’ rights.  He also conducted an intense advocacy work towards the international community on the protection of civilians in armed conflict situations. He closely worked with non-governmental organizations as representative to the EU, UN, Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
     

AnnyssaBellal

Dr. Annyssa Bellal, Executive Coordinator, Geneva Peacebuilding Platform (GPP) and Senior Researcher, Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) at the Geneva Graduate Institute

  • Dr Annyssa Bellal is an international lawyer with more than 18 years of experience in the area of conflict studies, both at the academic and policy levels, with a particular expertise on the issue of armed non-state actors. Dr Bellal was formerly a Strategic Adviser on International Humanitarian Law and Senior Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian law and Human Rights. She also worked as a legal adviser for the Swiss NGO Geneva Call, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as well as the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs. In 2011, she acted as the Head of the International Humanitarian Customary Law Project at the International Committee of the Red Cross. Dr Bellal holds a PhD (summa cum laude) in Public International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and an LLM in Philosophy of Law from the University of Grenoble. She also holds a Master of Advanced Studies in International Relations and an MA in Law from the University of Geneva.

 

Moderator


Fluzin_Cyprien

Mr. Cyprien Fluzin, PhD Candidate, Teaching & Research Assistant in International Law, the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.

  • Cyprien Fluzin is a PhD candidate in international law, teaching assistant at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, research consultant, and adjunct lecturer at Paris Dauphine University-PSL. Cyprien worked on foreign fighters and affiliated persons at the ICRC and conducted research on the matter while at Harvard Law School; his doctoral research addresses the variety of legal issues arising from the participation of foreigners in conflicts.