Logics of care and control: governing European “returnees” from Iraq and Syria

ABSTRACT

This article examines how European “returnees” from the conflict in Iraq and Syria are managed by European governance and screening, prosecution, reintegration and rehabilitation (SPRR) processes. It explores the contestations and dynamics among professionals and practitioners involved in SPRR, and how they attempt to manage competing narratives of villain/victim. The article finds that underlying their efforts are different notions of “care” that allow for benevolent control and risk mitigation. The integration of care into governance has unevenly distributed political effects, allowing for the ongoing resilience and adaptability of the war on terror.

KEYWORDS:

• Care
• governance
• returnees
• SPRR
• ISIS
• counterterrorism
• gender

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the reviewers of this paper for their early recommendations to focus more on the ethics of care. We would also like to thank the special edition editors and the journal editorial team for their support during a challenging year. Research for this article was supported by the Research England QR Award “Gender, Religion and Countering/Preventing Violent Extremism and EXIT work” (January–April 2020).

Disclosure statement

Dr Katherine Brown has worked occasionally as a consultant for RAN on matters relating to gender and radicalisation, and she has provided expert witness testimony in court cases involving ‘returnees’. F. Nubla Mohammed has no conflict of interest..

Notes

1. Holy pilgrimage – this is a term used by Daesh supporters to describe the journey foreign nationals made in order to live within the Caliphate.

2. The term “returnees” is used to describe those seeking to return, in one of various stages of returning, or who have returned from Daesh to Europe. It does not differentiate between those who returned through their own endeavours, those who returned voluntarily with support from their home countries and third parties, or those who are repatriated involuntarily.

3. In the UK “Prevent” is part of the national counter-terrorism strategy, and each region and metropolitan area and police forces have Prevent officers working with local government authorities, police, education establishments, health care institutions and other sectors to facilitate case management, radicalisation awareness training, and resilience policies.

4. The research was overseen through the University of Birmingham ethical research processes in accordance with disciplinary and professional associations’ best practices in relation to consent, confidentiality, data management processes, and the ethical use of data to “do no harm”. It was administered through the College of Arts and Law Ethical Research Committee (Reference number ERN_20-0196).

5. For example, a number of women and children are actively pursuing cases in national courts, others are dependent on the good will of officials to gain re-entry, and others fear for their lives in Iraq and Syria, and we do not wish to inadvertently disrupt their security or efforts to return home.

6. “Formers” is the term used to describe those who have “exited” extremism; they are former members of violent extremist or terrorist organisations.

7. Foucault identified surveillance governance as a process of “soul training” that enabled the automatic functioning of power: to transform individuals so that they self-regulated their behaviours in line with prescribed social norms (Lyon, 1994; Foucault 1997).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katherine E. Brown

Dr Katherine E Brown is a Reader of Religion and Global Security at the University of Birmingham, UK. She has published widely on gender, counterterrorism, radicalisation and religion. Most recently she is the author of “Gender, Religion and Extremism: finding women in anti-radicalisation” (2020) with OUP, and “Religious Violence and Post-Secular Counter Terrorism” (2020) in the journal International Affairs.

F. Nubla Mohamed

F. Nubla Mohamed is an independent researcher and consultant who specialises on countering violent extremism, religion and gender in South East Asia and Asia-Pacific regions. She has previously worked for a number of NGOs and research organisations on CVE and PVE.