The Kurdish liberation movement in Iraq : from insurgency to statehood /

Voller (Univ. of Edinburgh) embeds his study in the international relations (IR) theory of constructivism, which advocates the study of how states themselves understand their own interests and to not assume their interests as suggested by mainstream realist IR theory. As a case study, the author uses the example of Kurdistan-Iraq (K-I) during the period from 1991 to 2003 when the US embarked on two massive wars against Iraq that allowed K-I to use the time to develop into a de facto state. He argues K-I was transformed from a liberated area to a quasi-state with earned sovereignty to a de facto state close to self-determination. By becoming a governing entity in 1992, K-I gained the confidence and largesse of international aid agencies, which in turn strongly supported democratization principles. K-I also developed state-to-region, state-to-government, and then state-to-state relations with Turkey. The US-led war against terror, especially in Iraq, allowed K-I to gain more "earned sovereignty" leading to de facto state status. Voller argues that the US-led war against the Islamic State in 2014 has further strengthened the de facto K-I state. Readers may also want to consult Robert Olson's The Goat and the Butcher (CH, Mar'06, 43-4282). Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections. --Robert W. Olson, University of Kentucky