Foreign fighters is "pet" interest and Thomas Hegghammer, from Norway's Defence Research Institute, has circulated his article 'Should I Stay or Should I Go? Explaining Variation in Western Jihadists’ Choice between Domestic and Foreign Fighting', which has been published in an American academic journal (APSR) and is on his own website:http://hegghammer.com/_files/Heggham...hould_I_go.pdf

The article's synopsis:
This article studies variation in conflict theater choice by Western jihadists in an effort to understand their motivations. Some militants attack at home, whereas others join insurgencies abroad, but
few scholars have asked why they make these different choices. Using open-source data, I estimate recruit supply for each theater, foreign fighter return rates, and returnee impact on domestic terrorist activity. The tentative data indicate that jihadists prefer foreign fighting, but a minority attacks at home
after being radicalized, most often through foreign fighting or contact with a veteran. Most foreign fighters do not return for domestic operations, but those who do return are more effective operatives than non-veterans. The findings have implications for our understanding of the motivations of jihadists, for assessments of the terrorist threat posed by foreign fighters, and for counter-terrorism policy.
Fifteen pages, so to printed off and read another day.