Publication

This paper examines the major stumbling blocks to unifying and reforming the peshmerga (army) forces of Iraqi Kurdistan. The impediments include 1) the long-standing distrust between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK); 2) their mutual jostling for territory; 3) the existing patronage systems that exist within Kurdish areas; 4) the influence of the so-called Gorran change movement; and 5) the omnipresent “Islamic State factor.”