Foreign / transnational volunteers are defined as individuals who served in a military force of a state or an entity other than their own state of nationality or residence. Their history is rich; their motivations and personal or professional trajectories have been studied, remembered, and at times celebrated. This special issue explores the receiving end of transnational military volunteerism with an emphasis on cross-cultural encounters and interactions.

Contributors focus on the ways in which host governments and military organisations received volunteers from abroad, on the interactions these foreigners had with the civilian population, on opportunities of settling in the countries where they fought, and on the influence foreign volunteers have had on the ways host countries remembered their historical conflicts. The study of the transnational encounters generated by such wartime service adds a new dimension to our understanding of the contemporary foreign fighter phenomenon and gives us a better appreciation of its importance.