There are growing fears among western governments about the threat posed by so-called ‘foreign fighters’ whose western citizens travel to far off conflict zones in order to participate as combatants. Although this process has a long and varied history in the West, stretching as far back as the Spanish civil war, in recent decades it has become an almost entirely Muslim phenomenon. This paper addresses the nature and scale of the foreign – fighters problem, and looks at how counter – narratives can help solve it.