The Kurds of Iraq: Building a State Within a State
Ofra Bengio | | ISBN: 978-1-58826-836-5 $68.50 |
| ISBN: 978-1-58826-963-8 $68.50 |
| 2012/346 pages/LC: 2011034887 |
DESCRIPTION
Ofra Bengio explores the dynamics of relations between the Kurds of Iraq and the Iraqi state from the inception of the Baath regime to the present.
Bengio draws on a wealth of rich source materials to carefully trace the evolution of Kurdish national identity in Iraq. Dissecting the socioeconomic, political, and ideological transformations that Iraqi Kurdish society has undergone across some five decades, she focuses on the twin processes of nation building and state building. She also highlights the characteristics of the Kurdish movement in Iraq relative to Kurdish communities elsewhere in the region.
This narrative of the profound vicissitudes of Iraqi Kurdish fortunes illuminates not only the complexities of politics within Iraq today, but also the influence of Iraqi Kurdistan on the geostrategic map of the entire Middle East.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ofra Bengio is professor in the Department of Middle East History at Tel Aviv University . Her previous publications in English include Saddam’s World: Political Discourse in Iraq and the coedited Minorities and the State in the Arab World.
CONTENTS
- The Evolution of Kurdish Nationalism.
- THE KURDS AND THE IRAQI STATE, 1968-1980.
- The Long Road to Kurdish Autonomy.
- Paved with Good Intentions.
- Unholy Alliances.
- Deteriorating Relationships.
- Marginalizing the Kurds.
- An Imposed Autonomy.
- A Time for War.
- Interregnum.
- CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE, 1980-1998.
- "One War Begets Another": The Iran-Iraq War.
- Rising from the Ashes.
- The Birth Pangs of Kurdish Self-Rule.
- Uncivil War in Kurdistan.
- A KURDISH ENTITY IN THE MAKING, 1998-2010.
- The Foreign Relations Imbroglio.
- From Victims to Victors.
- The Great Leap Forward in Post-Saddam Iraq.
- CONCLUSION.
- "No Friends but the Mountains" Reconsidered.
"The only book this reviewer knows of that fully analyzes the history of Kurds in Iraq under the Baath Party from 1968 to the US invasion in 2003.... [Bengio also] devotes the last 47 pages to an analysis of the post-2003 history of Iraq and developments in the Kurdistan Regional Government.... Highly recommended."—Choice
"Meticulously research and highly informed.... This is the most up-to-date and detailed account of Iraqi Kurdish politics available in English."—Library Journal
"Without a doubt one of the best books to come along on the Kurds of Iraq.... Exceptional."—Charles G. McDonald, Florida International University