Assessing Foreign Fighters from the Caucasus Region in Syria and Iraq

本文考察了2011年后参与冲突的高加索志愿者。官方估计，来自高加索地区的数千名居民参加了叙利亚和伊拉克冲突的各种组织。高加索地区的居民名义上被称为会说俄语的志愿者。尽管现有的学术研究表明，“讲俄语”的志愿人员对冲突动态作出了重大贡献，但关于外国战斗人员的经验数据--包括各种分组(Lezgin、Kist、Avar)和贴上俄语标签的不同语言社区(阿塞拜疆语、格鲁吉亚语)--有限。该领域研究道路上的许多工作的一个基本要素是专业语言海外人种学工作，使研究人员能够建立信任，收集数据，并对经历过动员的边缘化社区进行访谈。与此同时，在许多理论文献中，对动员和高风险激进主义的研究，特别是在暴力社会运动中，仍然被忽视。这项博士研究将解决文献中的这一研究难题和差距，并发展一套在海外实地调查中收集的经验数据的方法论体系。这项研究涉及以不同的语言格式(土耳其语、阿拉伯语和俄语)收集数据，包括当地专业语言(阿塞拜疆语、格鲁吉亚语、切尔卡西亚语)。有必要采访冲突退伍军人、他们的家人、精神领袖、学术专家、官员和记者，他们大约有40-60名受访者。然而，由于博士学位的数据收集涉及与高危社区合作并使用各种当地语言，因此在这些社区所在的土耳其、格鲁吉亚和阿塞拜疆进行海外实地考察是必不可少的。总而言之，博士学位将分析一个经常被忽视的但实质性的利益群体，创建一个新的实证数据集，并在研究暴力社会运动的新兴跨学科工作机构方面做出重大的理论和方法论贡献。

This thesis examines Caucasian volunteers who participated in conflicts after 2011. Official estimates indicate that several thousand residents from the Caucasus - nominally called 'Russian-speaking' volunteers - participated in various groups involved in the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. Although existing academic work illustrates that 'Russian-speaking' volunteers made a substantial contribution to the conflict dynamics, empirical data on foreign fighters - including the various sub-groups (Lezgin, Kist, Avar) and different language communities (Azeri, Georgian) labelled Russian-speaking - is limited. An essential element of much work on the area studies pathway is specialist language overseas ethnographic work, enabling the researcher to build trust, collect data, and conduct interviews with marginalised communities that have experienced mobilisation. At the same time, research on mobilisation and high-risk activism, particularly in violent social movements, remains neglected in much of the theoretical literature. This doctoral research will address this research puzzle and gap in the literature and develop a methodologically robust body of empirical data collected during overseas fieldwork. The study involves data collection in different language formats (Turkish, Arabic, and Russian), including specialist local languages (Azeri, Georgian, Circassian). Interviews with conflict veterans, their family members, spiritual leaders, academic experts, officials, and journalists, numbering approximately 40-60 respondents, are necessary. However, because data collection for the doctorate involves working with at-risk communities and using a variety of local languages, overseas fieldwork in Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, where these communities are based, is essential. In sum, the doctorate will analyse an often neglected but substantial community of interest, create a new empirical data set, and make significant theoretical and methodological contributions to research on the emerging, interdisciplinary body of work on violent social movements.