The Iraqi Kurdistan in the Post-Saddam Era: Security, Natural Resources and Foreign Policy Activism

Abstract

This paper examines the role of security and the factor of natural resources in strengthening the Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s foreign relations. The author finds that, in the post-Saddam period, despite countless obstacles from various sides, the KRG has managed to use security/stability and the oil and gas of the Region to develop and strengthen its foreign relations to a significant extent, which just a few years ago was nearly impossible for a federated unit, such as the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, to achieve.