The Joint Policy Study analyses the threat coming from terrorist groups with a focus on the issue of foreign fighters’ recruitment by Daesh, Al-Nusra Front, and Al Qaeda.

The first chapter discusses the reasons of the appeal of ISIS in Europe and in the Middle East as well as the causes of radicalisation, grouping them in four categories: ideological and political, sociological and psychological, economic, technical and practical. The second chapter examines the channels used by the terrorist groups in order to attract new recruits. Tactics deployed towards different profiles of people, methods and major places of recruitment as well as messages disseminated in order to mobilise new fighters are analysed. The following chapter focuses on the specific case of the significant role of women in Jihadist movements in general and in IS in particular, and the drivers that entice women into Jihadism. The final contribution analyses the geopolitical environment in which Daesh has been able to flourish, with a focus on the role of international and regional actors.

The Joint Policy Study is the outcome of the Working Package on “Terrorist Threat in the Euro-Mediterranean Region”, led by Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in the framework of the EuroMeSCo ENI Project.