The Political Geography of Globalized Civil Wars: Networked Actors and Multi-Scalar Strategies in the Kurdish Conflict Assemblage

Adamson, Fiona

Abstract

This article introduces and lays out a conflict assemblage framework for understanding the political geography of globalized civil wars. It suggests the utility of conceptualizing Turkey’s Kurdish conflict as an assemblage in which networked actors use multi-scalar strategies as part of their overall conflict strategy. Insurgent organizations such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) operate at various scales beyond the national—including local, regional, transnational, and global—and in so doing utilize political opportunities and mobilize resources that are embedded in different locales. In the Kurdish case, disparate sites such as Diyarbakir, Marseille, Istanbul, London, New York, and Kobane become tied together within a single conflict assemblage that transcends geographical boundaries. An assemblage approach to violent conflict is a form of ontological theorizing that highlights this spatial and political complexity. By treating violent conflicts as assemblages with their own symbolic boundaries, political dynamics, internal governance structures, and strategic logics, we gain a better understanding of the contours and dynamics of globalized civil wars.

Citation

Adamson, F. (in press). The Political Geography of Globalized Civil Wars: Networked Actors and Multi-Scalar Strategies in the Kurdish Conflict Assemblage. International Studies Quarterly, 68(1), https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqad060

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 23, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Feb 23, 2024
• Deposit Date: Mar 28, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 24, 2024
• Journal: International Studies Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 0020-8833
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-2478
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 68
• Issue: 1
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqad060
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/isq/article/68/1/sqad060/7613190