The Danish intelligence service recently warned Danish citizens and residents against joining “militant Islamist” groups in Syria. The phenomenon of Danes joining jihad abroad is not a new phenomenon, however. Manni Crone will provide a historical overview of the Danish jihad scene from the 1990s, when veterans from the first Afghan war obtained asylum in Denmark, until the current conflicts in Syria and Somalia. From a Danish perspective, it will shed light at some of the ramifications of global jihad and touch upon the phenomena of “foreign fighters,” “returnees,” “recruitment” and the role played by religion.

Manni Crone is a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, and former head of section at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. She works on terrorism in Europe, North Africa and the Sahel, on extremism and on radicalization. Her recent publications include “Muslims as a Danish security issue” (Islam in Denmark, New York 2012, with Mona Sheikh) and “Homegrown terrorism in the West” (Terrorism and Political Violence 2011, with Martin Harrow). Her chapter on “War and Violence” is forthcoming in Benedikte Brincker's Introduction to Political Sociology.