The Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Those Affiliated with Terrorism: The Case of Iraq

Abstract

The rehabilitation and reintegration of terrorists and former combatants hasbeen a longstanding focus in several fields of academic literature. However,this literature still falls short in several ways. First, the literature has onlyminimally considered persons affiliated with terrorist groups—often familymembers of militants who themselves are not culpable for crimes—and howto account for their rehabilitation and reintegration (sometimes referencedas transitional rehabilitation). Second, scholarship on contemporary casessuch as ISIS has tended to focus on western cases of women and minorreturnees—not those in key countries governed and affected by terroristactors such as Iraq. Third, it has neglected first-hand experiences and chal-lenges that these affiliated individuals perceive returning to their commu-nity. Drawing on primary source interviews, focus groups, and fieldwork inIraq, this article uses a case study to highlight implications of rehabilitationand reintegration of civilians “affiliated” with a terrorist group who are notterrorist offenders, and who live in, or are returning to conflict-affected areas.It calls for more research focus on this population and highlights some of theways existent scholarship on terrorism and DDR may be expanded to morerobustly account for those “affiliated” with terrorism.