About the authors
Jessica Burniske, Dustin A. Lewis, and Naz K. Modirzadeh were the principal contributors to this Research Briefing. Ms. Burniske is an expert consultant for the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC)’s Counterterrorism and Humanitarian Engagement Project (CHE Project). She performed the bulk of the underlying research for much of the qualitative analysis and most of the quantitative analysis. She also drafted the Appendix and portions of the report. Mr. Lewis, a Senior Researcher at the Program, provided legal and policy research and analysis; edited the report; created the charts, graphs, infographics, maps, and pictorials; and designed the print and online versions of the report. Ms. Modirzadeh, the Director of the Program who has also been designated a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, conceptualized the initial framing of the report (with Mr. Lewis) and provided critical feedback on numerous drafts.
Acknowledgements and Disclaimers
This Briefing has been produced, in part, with the financial assistance of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NFMA). The views expressed herein should not be taken, in any way, to reflect the official opinion of the NMFA. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) facilitated this financial assistance through the NFMA. HLS PILAC/the CHE Project also receives generous support from the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). The views expressed herein should also not be taken, in any way, to reflect the official opinions of the Swiss FDFA nor NRC. The CHE Project is grateful for the support of the NMFA, NRC, and the Swiss FDFA. The research undertaken by the authors was completely independent. The views and opinions reflected in this report are those solely of the authors. And the authors alone are responsible for any errors.
The authors extend their thanks to Federica du Pasquier for research assistance; to Jennifer Allison, PILAC Liaison to the Harvard Law School Library (HLSL), and the staff of the HLSL for research support; to June Casey of the HLSL for open-access support; and to the Senior Law and Policy Working Group of the CHE Project for their insights and engagement around the issues discussed in this Briefing.
License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
Suggested citation
Jessica Burniske and Dustin A. Lewis, with Naz K. Modirzadeh, “Suppressing Foreign Terrorist Fighters and Supporting Humanitarian Action: A Provisional Framework for Analyzing State Practice,” Research Briefing, Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, October 2015.
Cover Photo credit
Russ Allison Loar, “UN Security Council & UN Security Guard,” June 19, 2014, Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Charts
— Subcategories: Provisional Indicators of State Compliance with Five Key Foreign Terrorist Fighter Elements of Resolution 2178, page 21 [PDF version]
— Subcategories: Provisional Indicators of State Support of Five Key Aspects of Principled Humanitarian Action in Counterterrorism Contexts, page 30 [PDF version]
Graphs
— Reported Foreign Fighters per Capita (per Million) for Selected States, page 22 [PDF version]
— Provisional Indicators of Overall State Compliance with Five Key Foreign Terrorist Fighter Elements of Resolution 2178 Per Subcategory, page 27 [PDF version]
— Provisional Indicators of Overall State Support of Five Key Aspects of Principled Humanitarian Action in Counterterrorism Contexts Per Subcategory, page 36 [PDF version]
Infographics
— Report Goals, page iii [PDF version]
— State Section, page iv [PDF version]
— Provisional Framework for Analyzing State Compliance with Key Foreign Terrorist Fighter Elements of Resolution 2178, page v [PDF version]
— Provisional Framework for Analyzing State Support of Principled Humanitarian Action in Counterterrorism Contexts, page vi [PDF version]
— Opportunities and Concerns for Principled Humanitarian Organizations, page vii [PDF version]
— Recommendations to Strengthen Evidence-based Decision-making, page viii [PDF version]
— State Selection Criteria, page 15 [PDF version]
Maps
— Selected States, page 16 [PDF version]
— Heat Map: Provisional Indicators of Overall State Compliance with Five Key Foreign Terrorist Fighter Elements of Resolution 2178 per Tier, page 28 [PDF version]
— Heat Map: Provisional Indicators of Overall State Support of Five Key Aspects of Principled Humanitarian Action in Counterterrorism Contexts per Tier, page 37 [PDF version]
Pictorials
— Proportional Distribution of Reported Foreign Fighters by Nationality for 25 Selected States, pages i and page 25 [PDF version]
Web
This report is available free of charge online at http://pilac.law.harvard.edu/ftf.
Epigraph
Terrorism is nothing new; we have been facing it for years. But it has taken on another dimension; it is now looking to conquer territory, to set up States, to subjugate peoples. It is attacking civilian populations – women, children. It has new names; it is no longer called just Al-Qaida or Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, but Boko Haram or Daesh. Daesh is the most recent incarnation of this terrorist madness. It is a new phenomenon in the sense that it aims to conquer and also to recruit a growing number of our citizens, wherever they may be, into its ranks. It is attracting people, often young people, of all nationalities, and not just, as it is often said, those of Muslim origin – even though Islam has nothing to do with this fight.
— President Francois Hollande, Sept. 24, 2014
U.N. SCOR, 7272 mtg. at 6, U.N. Doc. S/PV.7272
