Abstract
The Iraqi Kurds present an anomaly in the Middle East state system. By having built autonomous governmental structures in the 1990s and then institutionalizing them within the federal framework of the post-2003 Iraqi state, the story of the Iraqi Kurds is one which 1980s’ analysts would struggle to foresee, and one which 2000s’ analysts now speculate as to where it could lead. This chapter identifies the event, dynamics, and interactions that came together to form the Kurdistan Region of Iraq that has become an important force in the affairs of Iraq and the wider Middle East in the twenty-first century. Following the rise of the Islamic State in 2014, the ‘internal’, endogenous challenges and the exogenous constraints in the regional state system will be identified.
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Stansfield, G. (2017). The Evolution of the Political System of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. In: Gürbey, G., Hofmann, S., Ibrahim Seyder, F. (eds) Between State and Non-State. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60181-0_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60181-0_4
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