Part I: Non-State Armed Actors in the Middle East: A Conceptual and Analytical Framework
1. Introduction: The Phenomenon of Non-State Armed Actors and Patterns of Violent Geopolitics in the Middle East
Murat Yeşiltaş and Tuncay Kardaş
2. The Transformation of the Regional Order and Non-state Armed Actors: Pathways to the Empowerment
Şaban Kardaş
Part II: The Ethno-Secular Geopolitical Space in the Middle East
3. Understanding “Foreign Policy” of the PYD/YPG as a Non-State Actor in Syria and Beyond
Berkan Öğür and Zana Baykal
4. The Kurdish Fight Against ISIS: Realizing the Virtual Kurdistan through Factionalized Politics in a Fragmented Homeland
Galip Dalay
5. Global Politics of Image and the Making of a Legitimate Non-State Armed Actor: Syrian Kurds and ‘the Secular West’ in Kobane
Tuncay Kardaş and Murat Yeşiltaş
Part III: The Rise of Sacred Political Space in the Middle East
6. Path to Become a State: From Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad to the Islamic State
Recep Tayyip Gurler and Omer Behram Ozdemir
7. The New Middle East, ISIS and the 6th Revolt against the West
Murat Yeşiltaş and Tuncay Kardaş
8. A New Controversial Actor in Post-ISIS Iraq: Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi (The Popular Mobilization Forces)
Bilgay Duman and Göktuğ Sönmez
Part IV: New Methods in Old Bottles: The Strategy of Non-State Armed Actors in the Middle East
9. Operationalizing the Vision of Building a New Caliphate: From Al-Qaeda to the Islamic State (IS)
Farhad Rezaei
10. The Making of Foreign Fighters in the Middle East: Identity, Social Media and Virtual Radicalization
Tuncay Kardaş and Omer Behram Ozdemir
11. What the ISIS Crisis Means for the Future of the Middle East
Burak Kadercan
12. Conclusion: The State of the Non-State Armed Actors in the Middle East
Murat Yeşiltaş and Tuncay Kardaş
Murat Yeşiltaş is Associate Professor in the Middle East Institute of Sakarya University, Turkey.
Tuncay Kardaş is Associate Professor in the Middle East Institute of Sakarya University, Turkey.
This volume investigates the nature and changing roles of the non-state armed groups in the Middle East with a special focus on Kurdish, Shia and Islamic State groups. To understand the nature of transformation in the Middle Eastern geopolitical space, it provides new empirical and analytical insights into the impact of three prominent actors, namely ISIS, YPG and Shia Militias. With its distinctive detailed and multi-faceted analyses, it offers new findings on the changing contours of sovereignty, geopolitics and ideology, particularly after the Arab Uprisings. Overall this volume contributes to the study of violent geopolitics, critical security studies and international relations particularly by exploring the ideologies and strategies of the new non-state armed actors.