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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.
List of contents
1. Introduction: The Phenomenon of Non-State Armed Actors and Patterns of Violent Geopolitics in the Middle East .- 2. The Transformation of the Regional Order and Non-state Armed Actors: Pathways to the Empowerment .- 3. Understanding "Foreign Policy" of the PYD/YPG as a Non-State Actor in Syria and Beyond .- 4. The Kurdish Fight Against ISIS: Realizing the Virtual Kurdistan through Factionalized Politics in a Fragmented Homeland .- 5. Global Politics of Image and the Making of a Legitimate Non-State Armed Actor: Syrian Kurds and 'the Secular West' in Kobane .- 6. From Al-Qaeda to Post Qaeda: The Evolution of ISIS .- 7. The New Middle East, ISIS and the 6th Revolt against the West .- 8. A New Controversial Actor in Post-ISIS Iraq: Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi (The Popular Mobilization Forces) .- 9. Operationalizing the Vision of Building a New Caliphate: From Al-Qaeda to the Islamic State (IS) .- 10. The Making of Foreign Fighters in the Middle East: Identity, Social Media and VirtualRadicalization .- 11. What the ISIS Crisis Means for the Future of the Middle East .- 12. Conclusion: The State of the Non-State Armed Actors in the Middle East.
About the author
Murat Ye¿iltä is Associate Professor in the Middle East Institute of Sakarya University, Turkey.
Tuncay Kardä is Associate Professor in the Middle East Institute of Sakarya University, Turkey.
Summary
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.
