This study aims to explain how a segment Kurdish nationalists in Syria imitates and substitutes the Westphalian conception of sovereign statehood in Syria. It argues that the Partiya Yekîtiya Democrat (PYD-an offshoot of the PKK in Syria) establishes its rule both by mimicking and substituting modern tools of state-making. The study identifies a three-pronged political-military strategy used at the local, regional and international levels. It shows that facing existential challenges from local non-state competitors and regional predatory states, the PYD’s main approach has been mimicking the modern state where possible and substituting the lack of legitimate rule and sovereignty with a set of political and global support networks. The study lastly shows how the PYD’s logic in mimicking the modern state practices is ultimately dependent on the support particularly from great powers such as the USA and reactions from the regional powers such as Turkey. Overall, the study examines how the fluctuations in the logic of the PYD stems from its mimicry and substitution of the modern state conduct such as survival strategies, foreign practices and identity politics that interweave and cut across the conventional state, sovereignty, geopolitics and territoriality.

这项研究旨在解释叙利亚的库尔德民族主义者如何模仿和替代威斯特伐利亚的叙利亚主权国家构想。它争辩说，PartiyaYekîtiya民主党（PYD-叙利亚库尔德工人党的分支机构）通过模仿和替代现代国家决策工具来确立其统治地位。该研究确定了在地方，区域和国际各级采用的三管齐下的政治军事战略。它表明，面对来自地方非国家竞争者和地区掠夺性国家的生存挑战，PYD的主要方法是在可能的情况下模仿现代国家，并通过一系列政治和全球支持网络来替代缺乏合法统治和主权的问题。这项研究最后表明，PYD模仿现代国家实践的逻辑最终如何取决于赖以支持的国家，尤其是美国等大国的支持以及土耳其等地区大国的反应。全面的，