Identity and Military Threats in Rojava: The Kurdish Dual Security Dilemma vis-à-vis ISIS, Turkey and Post-Assad Damascus

This study draws on elite interviews with 16 senior political and military actors within the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to analyze how Kurdish threat perceptions and strategies evolved from 2011 to 2025 in response to external threats from Damascus, ISIS, and Turkey. The article concludes that while scholarship on the security dilemma has traditionally focused on the military aspects of security concerns (realistic threats), for the Kurdish leadership in Syria it also has identity aspects (symbolic threats), which can lead to an escalating dual security dilemma.