Author Description

This research argues from the contemporary-realist international theory that the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) can continue to govern semi-autonomously within the region of northern Iraq and simultaneously work with the national government towards reunification using a federalist system of government. Thus allowing Kurds and other minorities to retain local power and begin to have greater influence at the national level. Research provided in this work refutes the constructivist model of Shibley Telhami and Michael Barnett in their book, Identity and Foreign Policy in the Middle East and instead asserts that powerful historical moments of government oppression by Saddam Hussein and the denial of recognition by the government as an ethnic and political body are not strong enough common histories to say Kurds would resist a unification with Iraq.Using a dataset from the Carnegie Middle East Governance and Islam published by The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research this project identifies when citizens of Iraq were asked in 2014, citizens of Iraq would accept alternative regional authorizes, “Should government and parliament should make laws according to the wishes of the people in some areas and implement different laws in others?” Dually, would accept immigration policies allowing Kurds to come from other countries into their own, “Do you mind having the following groups as neighbors, immigrants and guest workers?” The first question helps clarify how Iraqi citizens feel about having regions inside the country operate on a different set of laws. Currently, Kurds in northern Iraq are semi-autonomous and have a few elected officials in the Iraqi government located in Baghdad. Having knowledge of this information allows short-term continuity of the existing conditions in the country and will sustain the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq. Analysis of the second question helps develop a long-term strategy for Kurds living in other re