Abstract
Foreign (Terrorist) Fighters in the Evolving New War Environment and the European Union's Response
As long as humanity has existed, it has created areas of struggle within the framework of the interests. Today, in the new war environment, terrorism emerges as one of the most important problems of countries. The new war environment has evolved into a multi-actor structure, including elements such as foreign (terrorist) fighters, criminal organizations, private military companies, and cyber attackers, that enables the desired target to be achieved in a shorter time and at less cost, but the war never ends. This work, by its nature, was made based on a literature review in which scientific articles, books, and reports of institutions were examined. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of foreign (terrorist) fighters, who are also actors in the new war environment, on the European Union (EU). Within the scope of the study, first a conceptual framework was drawn, and the concepts of new war and foreign (terrorist) fighters have been explained. In the following section, the development of the EU Common Foreign Security and Defense Policy and the EU Counter-Terrorism Strategy have been explained. In the evaluation section, the documents published on the EU's Counter-Terrorism Strategy were examined. In the conclusion part, the results obtained were evaluated. As a result of the analysis, it has been evaluated that although the EU has difficulties in the fight against terrorism due to its large number of member states and institutions, it is trying to adapt to the new war environment around the changing threat by establishing new institutions, implementing regulations, and developing action plans.
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