Kurdish Autonomy and U.S. Foreign Policy: Continuity and Change

This book evaluates U.S. foreign policy patterns towards Kurdish movements in Turkey and Syria and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. In the first section of the collection, U.S. foreign policy approaches are examined by comparing multiple U.S. administrations and their responses to Kurdish demands for autonomy. While Kurds have been used to advance particular policy interests, several contributors also identify challenges to Kurdish independence movements linked to ideological divisions and patronage structures. However, Kurds could benefit from political changes even if U.S. policy preferences favor maintaining established borders. In the second section, several contributors explore the Kurdistan Regional Government’s unfulfilled expectations and the fallout from the 2017 independence referendum. Consecutive U.S. administrations have been reluctant to destabilize the region, supported efforts by Turkey to co-opt the KRG, and impeded Kurdish movements in Syria and Turkey. Finally, the third section analyzes the ways in which Kurdish movements have responded to long-standing patterns of U.S. foreign policy preferences. Here contributors examine Kurdish lobbying efforts in the United States, discuss Kurdish para-diplomacy activities in a comparative context, and frame the YPG/J’s (People’s Protections Units/Women’s Protections Units) and PYD’s (Democratic Union Party) project in Syria. Broader power structures are critically examined by focusing on particular Kurdish movements and their responses to U.S. foreign policy initiatives.

Table of Contents:
Vera Eccarius-Kelly/Michael M. Gunter: Introduction: Kurdish Autonomy and U.S. Foreign Policy – Marianna Charountaki: Non-State Actors as Agents of Foreign Policy: The Case of Kurdistan – Michael Rubin: Will the United States Ever Support Kurdish Independence? – Thomas Jeffrey Miley/Güney Yildiz: U.S. Foreign Policy Towards the Kurdish Movement Under Obama and Trump – Liam Anderson: U.S. Foreign Policy, Kirkuk, and the Kurds in Postwar Iraq: Business as Usual – Bilal A. Wahab: From Aid to Oil: Iraqi Kurdistan’s Dependent Economy – Michael M. Gunter: Trump’s Foreign Policy Toward the Kurds – David Romano: The Kurds’ Trump Card – Vera Eccarius-Kelly: Kurdish Lobbying and Political Activism in the United States – Haluk Baran Bingöl: From Limited Partnership to Strategic Alliance: The Emerging Significance of Kurdish Para-Diplomacy in U.S. Foreign Policy – Eva Ssavelsberg: "Operation Olive Branch"—Did the U.S. Change Its Strategy Toward the YPG? – Huseyin Rasit: Imperialism, Revolution, and the Desire to Lecture the Kurds: How Should We (Not) Analyze U.S.-Kurdish Relations – Contributors – Index.

About the Author :
Vera Eccarius-Kelly is Professor of Comparative Politics at Siena College in Albany, New York. She received her Ph.D. in 2002 from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Her numerous journal articles and contributions to edited volumes examine Kurdish diaspora activism and expressions of Kurdish nationalism. Her monograph is entitled The Militant Kurds: A Dual Strategy for Freedom. Michael M. Gunter is Professor of Political Science at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee. He authored ten critically acclaimed scholarly books on the Kurdish question and published dozens of journal articles and book chapters. He is also the Secretary-General of the EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC) in Brussels.

Review :
“Few would dispute that the Middle East is disintegrating socially, politically, and even territorially. The Kurds, the forgotten and dismissed people of the past century, have risen to play an important role in the emerging Middle East. Whether they will survive the reshuffling of power and carve out a political space for themselves is largely a function of U.S. policy toward the region. This collection offers a timely and much-needed examination of the complex U.S.-Kurdish relations in a volatile and strategically important region.” —Mehmet Gurses, Professor of Political Science, Florida Atlantic University “This is a timely and valuable contribution to the field of Kurdish studies. The book deals with a period in U.S. foreign policy that has not yet been covered adequately, at least in the English language. In addition, this edited volume is the first book on the topic of Kurdish-U.S. relations that covers the Trump era. Even though the book’s focus is on contemporary developments, the editors have done a superb job of placing the book’s main arguments in a proper historical framework.”—Nader Entessar, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of South Alabama