Overview of Kurdistan

Kurdistan is a region located between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. The Kurds are the biggest ethnicity on the planet without a state to this day. This paper will focus on the Iraqi part of Kurdistan, for it has come the closest to a state-like notion as per Weber’s definition. Iraqi Kurdistan is a region characterized by many diplomatic issues due to lack of acceptance as a state. The region was established through an autonomy agreement with Iraqi government in 1970 after decades of disputes between the Iraqi government and the Kurds in the north. The region had already established a government, but it lacked many characteristics that are applicable to a state. The constant conflict with the Iraqi government has been ongoing since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the end of World War I. The League of Nations with the British at the head of the reshaping of the borders in the Middle East divided the Kurdish people between the four countries mentioned earlier. Many states in the world today are based on Max Weber’s definition of a state, “monopoly on the legitimate use of violence in a given territory”. Iraqi Kurdistan has some of the traits required to be a state per the definition, but it has not been accepted as one by the international community (Oslon 672). Thus, it can be argued that the Kurdish region did not gain international acceptance as a state due to lack of a standing army and an established territory, according to Weber’s notion of a state.

Kurdish patriotism has persisted throughout the 20th century, but has been at the peek for the last decade, thereby influencing the development of the dispute in the region. Moreover, patriotism during this period has increased in comparison to the historical Kurdish battle...

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...ent capacity to ensure that the Iraqi Kurdistan has all the characteristics of a functional state.

Works Cited

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Bacik, Gökhan. Hybrid Sovereignty in the Arab Middle East: The Cases of Kuwait, Jordan, and Iraq. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Print.

Oslon, Robert. "The Goat And The Butcher: Nationalism and State Formation in Kurdistan-Iraq Since The Iraqi War." International Journal of Middle East Studies 39.4(2007): 672-676. Print.

Romano, David. The Kurdish Nationalist Movement : Opportunity, Mobilization, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006. Print.

Zunes, Stephen. "A Nation Without A State : Inconsistency and Double-Dealing Mark US Policy Toward The Kurds." National Catholic Reporter 44.8 (2013): 19. Print.