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Middle East Review of International Affairs
The Kurds of Iraq: Recent History, Future Prospects
by Carole A. O'Leary
*
Abstract
This article briefly recounts the developing situation of Iraqi Kurds over the last decade and discusses what the future of this group might be like in a post-Saddam Iraq. It explores the option of a federal system in which a division of powers between the central government and north would provide a way for effective regional government will ensuring the state's unity. A workable, acceptable solution to the Kurdish problem would be absolutely necessary for the future stability of Iraq. The article also looks at how the decade-long experience of Kurdish self-rule in a democratic framework affects the debate over Iraq's future. The article concludes with a chronology of modern Kurdish history.
Full PDF Document, 13 pages, 77 kbs
Endnotes
Note *: Professor Carole A. O'Leary is the Scholar-in-Residence for the Middle East Initiative at the American University Center for Global Peace. Professor O'Leary established a Future of Iraq Working Group at the Center in early 2001 to examine the premise that federalism is the best organizing framework for governance in a future Iraq. Since 1994, she has been an adjunct professor in the School of International Service, cross-appointed to the Divisions of International Peace and Conflict Resolution and Comparative and Regional Studies. With Charles MacDonald, she is the co-editor a volume entitled The Kurdish Identity in an Unsettled World that will be published in 2003. Back