From the PYD-YPG to the SDF: the Consolidation of Power in Kurdish-Controlled Northeast Syria

Within a multiparty civil war involving domestic rivalries and regional
antagonisms, the Kurdish-led PYD-YPG rebel movement managed to
consolidate its political-military power in northeastern Syria. Using the
analytical framework of Political Opportunity Structures (POS), we
describe how, through its ability to maintain organizational cohesion
and establish its own governance structures, and by forging alliances
with domestic and foreign actors, it became the hegemonic power in
the territory. Whereas it initially relied on coercive consolidation against
its main Kurdish rivals, to secure local and international support against
the significant threat posed by the Islamic State it had to shift to
cooperative and cooptation strategies of power consolidation.