From Byron to bin Laden

Title: From Byron to bin Laden – A History of Foreign War Volunteers

Author: Nir Arielli

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2018 (First)

ISBN: 9780674986701

Pages: 295

The insurrection and civil war that ravaged Iraq and Syria respectively in the first two decades of the twenty-first century attracted jihadis from all over the world. The wanton cruelty of many of them horrified mankind through such heinous acts as decapitating prisoners whose hands are tied in the back, buying and selling chained women as sex slaves and killing children who were going to schools. Thousands of Muslims who had taken permanent residence in Western democracies and born and brought up there took part in the carnage with sickening zeal. Many of them returned to their home states to carry out terrorist attacks. All these incidents have made the world wary of foreign fighters taking part in conflicts being fought in countries other than their homes. But the concept of fighting for a noble cause in other countries goes back a long way. The most notable of such warriors are Lord Byron and Giuseppe Garibaldi who fought in Greece and South America in support of freedom and liberty. This book is a history of such fighters and their contributions in the post-Enlightenment era, running roughly from 1770 to 2015. The title of the book carries some significance in portraying the range of emotions that propel volunteers to risk their own lives in a war raging in another country. Even though not judgmental, the title implies a noble urge on Byron's side and a base one on bin Laden, as can be expected. Nir Arielly is an associate professor of international history at the University of Leeds in the UK. His area of expertise envelopes international relations in Europe and the Middle East.

Arielli examines the issue of foreign volunteers and makes a historian’s contribution to contemporary debates by tracing the roots of the phenomenon through the late-eighteenth century and identifying its main attributes in subsequent generations. He defines who is a volunteer and leaves out mercenaries and seekers of vainglory. Even though foreign fighters are linked to terrorism in the present day, there were perceived differently by different people in different historical contexts. The author has tried his best to avoid passing judgment on the motives which are wide and varied. The criterion to qualify is that taking part in a conflict is solely on the basis of personal decision. Material gain shall not be a factor and being forced to go as part of an army embarking upon a command of the government also takes such persons out of the purview of the book. The scope of narrative is thus set very early in the book.

Volunteering for overseas military ventures probably began in recorded history from the first Crusade (1096 – 1099 CE). The Christian monarchs in Europe heeded the call of Pope Urban II to free Jerusalem from Muslim Kings. The Byzantine emperor in Constantinople became upset by the continuous streaming of thousands of soldiers through his empire on the way to Jerusalem. It did not help that there was no love lost between the eastern Orthodox and western Catholic versions of Christianity. He didn't help the expedition, upon which the crusaders went on their own and established four principalities in the Levant, including the short-lived kingdom of Jerusalem in 1099. The mediaeval king could not ascertain his monopoly on his subjects’ loyalty and they were virtually free to offer their valour to the highest bidder in another kingdom. This state of things changed during the French Revolution where the concept of nationalities and nation states emerged for the first time. From then on, a person was expected to serve only in the military of the nation to which he belonged. The character of money and adventure associated with foreign expeditions thus underwent a total transformation. Major conflicts in which the foreign fighters made a considerable contribution is the Greek Wars of Independence (1820s), Italian unification (1860s), Balkan insurrections against the Ottomans (1870s) and the Spanish civil war (1930s). As is made clear in these examples, the home state of the volunteers did not resort to legal proceedings against them if the course was honorable or in line with national policy.

The book showcases some of the features of a product of serious academic research. This is especially noticeable in the comprehensiveness with which the features and motives of the conflicts and its participants are surveyed. Wars that attracted substantial numbers of foreign volunteers normally involved a salient ideological fault line. Arielli identifies three waves of ideological encounters – the beginning of nineteenth century presented conflicts for liberty and against tyranny; the twentieth century saw the global war between the left and right wings of political opinion; and the third is the clash of civilizations that came to the open after 1980. The author unnecessarily embellishes religious terrorism with the euphemism of ‘a battle between civilizations’. What he shies away from doing is the identification of religious motives in the clashes during the first two stages. The Greek Revolution was clearly a Christian effort to overthrow Ottoman Muslim rule and pious believers fought on the side of Nationalists in the Spanish civil war. Arguments of tyranny were certainly valid, but it constituted only to reinforce the dedication of the fighters. Foreign volunteers of all ages have one thing in common – the search for a sense of purpose and meaning. They desperately desire for an escape from a bewildered present or to fill some sort of void in their pre-war lives. The primary factor was the urge to improve their self-esteem and gain recognition from peers.

Lord George Gordon Byron was the most illustrious personality in the pantheon of foreign volunteers. Arielli provides disappointingly little on his war effort. His attraction towards Greece was cemented during an expedition in 1809 and seen in the poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. He died of fever in Greece at the age of 36 and the Greeks revere him as a national hero. Almost all of the volunteers so far had been men, but there are some notable women too among them. Flora Sandes was a British nurse who fought in the Serbian army during World War I. She notes in her autobiography that she prayed every night in childhood to wake up next day and find herself a boy. But sex did not stop her in venturing into niches reserved for the male. She joined the Serbians as a nurse and then enlisted as a private in infantry. Kurdish forces in Syria employ many women who are outraged by the Islamic State’s cruelty to Yazidi women. As many as 40 per cent of the personnel in the Kurdish armed forces are women. The author finds fault with UN Resolution 2178 which declares that the foreign volunteers increase the intensity, duration and intractability of conflicts. Arielli finds no evidence in support of this contention and comes up with many instances in which their contribution was lackluster and played against the spirit of the adventure.

This book’s title is eye-catching and very attractive, but the main text does not do justice to eager readers. It assumes thorough prior knowledge on the part of readers about each incident mentioned. He breezes over the Dreyfus Affair and the Fashoda Incident without halting to explain what they are. This repeats in the case of major wars also but there, at least some familiarity can reasonably be expected. A serious drawback of Arielli’s worldview as seen in this book is its narrowness. Wars in Asia or Africa are never mentioned. The descriptions of conflicts are repeated in every chapter in the context of the effects, motives, and social conditions through which the acts are analyzed. Moreover, the nature of research is purely academic which can be produced without leaving the library at least once. The arguments seem to have been developed through a common sense approach which is then buttressed with facts culled from reference books.

This book is a tiresome burden for the reader on account of its uninteresting style and uninspiring typeface. It is recommended only to serious readers of international relations.

Rating: 2 Star