How to profile PYD/YPG as an actor in the Syrian civil war: Policy implications for the region and beyond

Since the armed confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, concepts such as “hybrid war,” “hybrid threat,” and “hybrid adversary” have been on the rise. These terms are part of an ongoing debate about the contemporary threat actors who effectively combine conventional and unconventional fighting capabilities, and who possess quasi-state characteristics. The Democratic Union Party (Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat, PYD) with its armed wing People’s Protection Units (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel-YPG), constitutes one of these hybrid nonstate actors. After the Syrian regime withdrew from the Kurdish areas in northern Syria in 2012, the PYD/YPG seized control of several towns and enclaves in this region and emerged as one of the most influential actors of the Syrian civil war. This chapter provides an analysis of the PYD/YPG’s rise in the Syrian context as well as its policy implications with a special emphasis on the concept of “hybrid actor.”Publisher's Versio