Chapter 1 Introduction: The Phenomenon of Non-state Armed Actors and Patterns of Violent Geopolitics in the Middle East

Chapter 2 The Transformation of the Regional Order and Non-state Armed Actors: Pathways to the Empowerment

Chapter 3 Understanding “Foreign Policy” of the PYD/YPG as a Non-State Actor in Syria and Beyond

Chapter 4 The Kurdish Fight Against ISIS: Realizing the Virtual Kurdistan Through Factionalized Politics in a Fragmented Homeland

Chapter 5 Global Politics of Image and the Making of a Legitimate Non-state Armed Actor: Syrian Kurds and ‘The Secular West’ in Kobane

Chapter 6 Path to Become a State: From Jama’at Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad to the Islamic State

Chapter 8 An Influential Non-state Armed Actor in the Iraqi Context: Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi and the Implications of its Rising Influence

Chapter 9 Operationalizing the Vision of Building a New Caliphate: From Al-Qaeda to the Islamic State (IS)

Chapter 10 The Making of European Foreign Fighters: Identity, Social Media and Virtual Radicalization

Chapter 11 What the ISIS Crisis Means for the Future of the Middle East

Chapter 12 Conclusion: The State of the Non-state Armed Actors in the Middle East