Description
By problematizing the nature of the complex relationship between tribes in the Syrian area of Manbij and the political and military actors’ tactical, operational, and strategic engagements with tribes during the Syrian war in general, this paper attempts to contextualize the logic of tribal survival and the strategies of co-optation of internal and external actors in the context of the Syrian civil war. The paper seeks to explain the main driving factors behind the relationship between tribes and other political and military actors in Syria during the civil war. More importantly it attempts to shed light on the strategic rationality behind the tribal politics by asking the question of why tribes accept to be co-opted. The research is based on fieldwork that was conducted in Turkey and Syria and, specifically, semi-structured and open-ended interviews with more than 200 high-ranking tribal members.
