This work is based on several years of field research, including multiple trips to northwest Syria, and interviews with the main leaders of the armed opposition, especially Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra / HTS

I focus on Ahrar al-Sham, and to some extent Jabhat al-Nusra, though the book also covers armed groups' mobilisation, alliance systems, relations to foreign states, and governance. I quote many interviewees in the book to present a more ethnographic feel to this research