UCLA

This dissertation explores the role of transnational dynamics in civil war. The conflict in Syria has been described as experiencing one of the most brutal civil wars in recent memory. At the same time, it bears the hallmarks of a deeply “internationalized” conflict, raising questions about the role of transnational forces in shaping its structural dynamics. Focusing on Syria’s conflict, I examine how different actors draw on transnational networks to shape the geographies of “wartime governance.” Wartime governance has been acknowledged by many scholars to be an important process of civil wars, and yet it is frequently conceptualized as a “subnational” or “local” process. For Syria’s opposition, I investigate how it both produces decidedly transnational spaces in Syria’s Northwest, while also illuminating the role of a particular network of actors in doing so. For the global jihadi network Daesh (known also as the Islamic State), I illustrate the contrast between its rhetoric of transnational jihad and its practices of governance, which is considerable. Ultimately, the dissertation suggests that tracing these transnational processes not only draws together literatures on the “local” and “transnational” dimensions of civil wars, but reveals the precarious political contexts which individuals must navigate in wartime.