An extensive literature review on armed and rebel groups, proxy forces, social movements, contemporary conflict, political order and statebuilding, as well as hybrid governance. This review provided the initial basis for the report.

Political economy studies of violent conflict in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Lebanon and Israel/Palestine conducted by Clingendael between 2012 and 2018. These studies have served as a general framework and source of inspiration for this report and are available at www.clingendael.org/cru.

A series of workshops in The Hague, Brussels, Berlin and London in 2017 and 2018 on political and security developments in Iraq and Syria organised by Clingendael, the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, GPPI and the East West Institute. These workshops generated rich and broad analysis of both context and key features of the many coercive organisations active in these countries. Their lively debate generated many new insights and angles.

Case studies conducted by Clingendael of selected quasi-governmental and hybrid coercive organisations in the Levant, namely the Peshmerga (Iraq) and selected groups of Iraq’s Al-Hashd al-Sha’abi (Iraq), as well as the Syrian Socialist National Party (SSNP) and its Eagles of the Whirlwind (Syria), the Tiger forces (Syria) and pro-Assad Syrian militias in general. These case studies form the core of the report’s evidence base and can be found at www.clingendael.org/research-program/levant