An Analysis Of The Social Mobilization Mechanism Of The “Islamic State” Foreign Jihadist Recruitment Process

The outbreak of the Syrian civil war in early 2011 not only destroyed the order of Middle East,but also caused a global phenomenon of terrorism: by the end of 2015,around 30,000 foreign fighters from at least 86 countries have poured into Syria and Iraq to join the extreme organizations.And the vast majority of them joined ISIS.The influx of foreign jihadists in conflict areas is never a new phenomenon,but in the aftermath of the Syrian civil war,the pouring of foreign fighters into ISIS has been unprecedented.What provokes these jihadists to join ISIS? Currently,there has been rare research on this issue.This article aims to probe into the factors that make ISIS able to recruit such large amounts of jihadists from all over the world based on the theories of social movement.Due to the inner connections between terrorism and social movement,the theories of social movement can provide guidance for this issue.Social movement theory defines the participation of people in social movements as a mobilization process that encompasses consensus mobilization and action mobilization,which is generated by the mobilization structure.By adopting the social movement theory,and referring to the available studies on this issue,this article finds out that the radicalization of the local environment,the organization--ISIS,the social networks including the terrorist network and several muslin spirit leaders are the main mobilization structures that has provoked the mobilization of potential foreign fighters.Among them,the radicalized environment is the prerequisite for the entire mobilization process.ISIS as the recruiting organization,constructs the narrative framework and sends its personnel to recruit foreign fighters.The social networks—the terrorists network and the muslin spirit leaders,especially the terrorists networks,play a key role in the process of action mobilization.