The Islamic State and the independence referendum: The role of foreign policy in maintaining the de facto Kurdish entity in Iraq

Abstract

The onslaught of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (hereafter ISIS) on the Kurdish de facto entity in Iraq in 2014 and the independence referendum in 2017 constituted two important episodes that impacted on the foreign policy of the Kurdish entity in multiple ways. This article analyzes and describes the foreign policies of the entity during and after these two episodes until the end of 2022. It attempts to answer the following two questions: How did the ISIS offensive briefly change the priorities of the Kurdish entity's leadership in terms of its foreign policy goals? Secondly, how did the independence referendum in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the subsequent events shape the foreign policy priorities of the Kurdish entity in Iraq? Through conducting interviews with high-level Kurdish politicians and using recently published secondary source materials, this article argues that foreign policy and paradiplomacy played vital roles in the preservation of the KRI during these two very tough periods and that the Kurdish entity had to alter its domestic policy goals to achieve its foreign policy aims and ensure the survival of the Kurdish facto entity in Iraq.