During the ñivil war in Syria the Syrian Kurds have managed to effectively use the weakening of the central government in Damascus  to  build  a  new kind  of self- government known as Rojava. While the Rojavan Kurds in the north of Syria enthusiastically propagate an antinationalist left-wing message, they are themselves in the process of building a nation. Their guiding ideology of democratic confederalism incorporates elements of civic nationalism and revolutionary socialism in order to construct a new nation in war-torn Syria along egalitarian lines. Rojava’s political system is based upon participatory democracy and federalism – political principles that allow the area’s heterogeneous population to take part in self-government at levels from local to quasi-state. While recognition of the Rojavan cantons in the course of the UN-mediated peace process and political settlement on Syria remains an open issue, Rojava’s democratic confederalism can already serve as a model for inclusive participatory democracy.