Polat Jan is a Kurdish researcher from Rojava, Northeast Syria, specializing in governance, conflict, and political order in the Middle East. His work focuses on how local systems of authority emerge and operate under conditions of war, with particular attention to legitimacy, institutional formation, and the role of social and cultural structures in shaping alternative models of governance.

Jan holds an MSc in International Relations with Distinction from the University of Glasgow and a BA in Social Sciences (Sociology) from the Open University in the UK. He is a PhD researcher with extensive lived experience in conflict settings, including demonstrated leadership representing Rojava / Northeast Syria and building diplomatic relations with numerous countries in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.

His broader academic interests include non-state governance, state formation, and the dynamics of political authority in contested environments. His work seeks to bridge empirical insights from the region with wider theoretical debates in international relations and political sociology.

In addition to his academic research, Polat has written on Kurdish political developments and the transformation of governance in Syria, combining theoretical analysis with grounded knowledge of local contexts.