This Leila Fadel article about tensions among Iraq’s Kurds highlights how our contingency planning in Iraq takes Kurdish solidarity and stability for granted. In fact, both are pretty recent developments, and, counterintuitively, could be undermined by further stabilization of Iraq’s national political landscape. For all its stability, Iraq’s Kurdish region has made little progress in terms of democratic governance or rule of law. So as stability becomes more nationally widespread, and therefore less locally urgent, and as the Kurds begin to pursue their interests within the context of Iraq’s national politics, as opposed to in opposition to Baghdad, internal faultlines will very likely re-emerge, with few avenues for peaceful political expression.
