Publication

This paper discusses the support provided to the Kurdish regional authorities in Iraq to help assist them in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) as well as the performance of the Kurdish military forces, the Peshmerga, against IS. More specifically, the author 1) details the supply of arms and other support that has been given to the Kurdish authorities by European countries; and 2) argues that while the Peshmerga have prevented IS from entering their territory, the Kurdish authorities still face a number of problems in their fight against the group. The problems include 1) that the Peshmerga are still outgunned by IS; 2) the recruitment of young Kurds to IS; 3) splits in the Kurdish political leadership; and 4) the concerns that arms supplies to the Kurdish authorizes have raised in the Iraqi central government.