The Threat of ISIS-Affiliated Foreign Terrorist Fighters Towards Canadian National Security

Abstract

Since the loss of approximately 98% of their territory, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has become a shadow of its former self. Foreign recruits must now decide whether to leave the region and return home or stay and possibly continue the fight. Those that return constitute a threat to their home environments because of their maintained allegiances to ISIS, state of radicalization, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and improved lethality, and operational effectiveness in conducting acts of domestic terrorism. As a result, this article calls for the development and application of a prosecutorial-reintegrative model that is based off prior research on Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs). The model should also be informed by up-to-date research in the field of deradicalization and disengagement and should consider the different classes of FTFs. Following an understanding of the qualitative differences of ISIS FTFs compared to past foreign fighters, the article concludes that directed counter violent extremist messaging and components of Saudi Arabia’s successful Prevention, Rehabilitation, and After Care (PRAC) program must be factored into any framework for rehabilitation and reintegration while Criminal Code and Anti-Terrorism Act provisions, complemented by evidence gathering strategies, are primarily used to hold FTFs accountable for serious offences. Received: 2021-04-05 Revised: 2021-04-24

Keywords

• Foreign fighters
• ISIS
• deradicalization/disengagement
• terrorism
• returnees