Publication

This article contends that a budding crisis in Iraqi Kurdistan has the potential to overshadow the ongoing war in Syria if it develops into a military conflict. Indeed, the author asserts that this is so as a conflict related to Kurdish independence could 1) draw in a huge number of combatants, potentially exceeding 650,000; 2) create an acute refugee crisis; 3) further destabilize northern Iraq; 4) draw in a range of regional and other international actors, including Russia and the US, and more.