The unravelling of the post-First World War state system? The Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the transformation of the Middle East
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4030719 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gareth Stansfield (0000-0001-7430-446X, College of Islamic and Arabic Studies, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 89 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 259-282 |
| Publication date | 2013-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-5850 • E-ISSN: 1468-2346 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1468-2346.12017 |
| OpenAlex | W2025578988 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
Ten years after regime change in Iraq, the Kurdistan Region has emerged as a transformative force in the international affairs of the Middle East. The Kurds have moved to being architects of the new Iraqi state, but have thereby forced an ideational contest between them—as visionaries of a decentralized Iraq—and successive Iraqi governments that favour a centralized authority structure. In addition to this first set of developments, the prominence of the Kurds is also explained by two additional sets of issues. The second concerns the interplay of federalism in Iraq and the management of the country's oil and gas reserves. Kurdistan's expansion of its hydrocarbons industry has been met with opposition from Baghdad that has furthered the polarization and enmity between the two sides. The third issue, which serves to make concrete the gains made by the Kurds, concerns regional geopolitical developments. For the first time in a century, the nationalist interests of the Kurds in Iraq are compatible with the sectarian interests of Turkey and Sunni Arab states. These three issues (domestic development, economic advancement and regional geopolitics) come together to explain the Kurdistan Region's agency in a rapidly transforming regional complex and raise the possibility of an independent Republic of Kurdistan emerging in the near future as an idea that is no longer regarded as impossible
CONTEST · Development economics · Economics · Economy · Federalism · Geopolitics · Middle East · Nationalism · Opposition (politics) · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science) · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics · Turkey's Politics and Society
The Para-Diplomacy of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq and the Kurdish Statehood Enterprise
Revisiting Western Strategies against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
Multilingual journeys
Strategies to Gain International Recognition
A Century of the Kurdish Question
Kurdistan Regional Government–Turkish energy relations
The Islamic State and the independence referendum
Borderland studies, frontierization, and the Middle East’s in-between spaces
Fluid State-Building in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Playing in the sandbox
Not to mislead peace
Fighting Falcons over northern Iraq
Transecting security and space in Kurdistan, Iraq
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,08 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2023 (10) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |