The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq

On March 19, 2003, the United States, the United Kingdom and a “coalition of the willing” invaded the Republic of Iraq. But one part of that state, Kurdistan, was already free from Saddam’s B’athists. It was autonomous but not formally independent. `The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq’ collects expert contributions on the consequences of the overthrow of Saddam’s regime for the Kurds and the other peoples of Kurdistan. The bulk of the published literature in English on the Kurds and Kurdistan has been historical or anthropological. This volume is the first in any language to address in detail the constitutional politics of Kurdistan’s relations with the rest of Iraq, and Kurdistan’s future constitutional options. The essays are innovative and contain detailed analysis and description. They evaluate how the relations between Kurdistan and predominantly Arab Iraq might–and should–be remade in a state marred by the legacies of genocide, ethnic expulsion, and coercive assimilation. The volume includes contributions from political scientists, constitutional lawyers, regional experts, and Kurdistan’s international constitutional advisory team and opens with a historical overview. The viewpoints present analyses of the Transitional Administrative Law of Iraq and Kurdistan’s preferred vision of a pluri-national federation, of appropriate lessons from Canadian federative history, of the constraints facing the negotiators of Iraq’s permanent constitution, and of the status of children in constitutional renewal. Essays on past failures for Kurdistan’s autonomy, on Kurdish hopes and fears before the March 19 war, on Kurdistan’s internal divisions, and on its external relations with Turkey give needed historical background to the debates. Contemporary pieces appraise mistakes made in the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and analyzes what Kurdistan’s negotiators seek to have inserted in the negotiation of the Transitional Administrative Law and will want in any permanent constitution of Iraq. The “Postscript: Vistas of Exit from Baghdad” updates readers, and scans benign and malign scenarios for Kurdistan. Also published in Kurdish and Arabic, this volume is the first in any language to address in detail the constitutional politics of Kurdistan’s relations with the rest of Iraq, and Kurdistan’s future constitutional options. Its authoritative contributors include political scientists, lawyers, and regional experts, and the three members of Kurdistan’s international constitutional advisory team who assisted in preparation for the negotiation of the Transitional Administrative Law, and in preparation of the design of the electoral law of Iraq and Kurdistan.