Statelet of Survivors

Amy Austin Holmes is Research Professor of International Affairs and Acting Director of the Foreign Area Officers Program at George Washington University. Dr. Holmes has published widely on the global American military posture, the NATO alliance, non-state actors, revolutions, and military coups. She has a PhD from Johns Hopkins University, and previously served as a tenured Associate Professor at the American University in Cairo, and as a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. Dr. Holmes is the author of Social Unrest and American Military Bases in Turkey and Germany since 1945 and Coups and Revolutions: Mass Mobilization, the Egyptian Military and the United States from Mubarak to Sisi (Oxford, 2019). In addition to her academic career, Dr. Holmes served as an advisor at the US Department of State through a Council on Foreign Relations fellowship. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she also worked as a volunteer lecturer at the Kyiv School of Economics.

• Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: A Genealogy of Rojava: Kurds and Armenians Declare the Republic of Mount Ararat 1926-1932Chapter 3: The SDF: The Evolution of the YPG into Syria's Second Largest Armed ForceChapter 4: Life under ISIS: A War of Women Against WomenChapter 5: Women in the Statelet of North and East Syria Chapter 6: Delinking from Damascus: The Economic Underpinnings of Political AutonomyChapter 7: The School of Revolution: The Autonomous Administration Creates a New Education SystemChapter 8: Yezidis and the Statelet of Survivors: Recognition, Representation, Religious Freedom, and Protection Chapter 9: ConclusionAppendixNotesIndex

In this fascinating and timely book, Amy Austin Holmes puts a different spin on the Kurdish-led social experiment in north and east Syria. Insightful and provocative, the book highlights a secular/democratic alternative that carries the potential to counter the rising tide of religious movements in the Middle East.