Kurdistan

Vacuum Emerges in Kurdish Politics as Iraqi Forces Push North

Iraqi Forces Push Kurdish Peshmerga Out of Contested Areas

Iraqi Kurds Vote on Secession, Backlash Begins

Editor’s Note: There is one bright spot in the darkness of the Middle East: the U.S. relationship with various Kurdish groups. In Iraq and Syria in particular, the Kurds seem the bulwark of U.S. efforts against the Islamic State and appear to be a relatively democratic and positive force in the region. Sloane Speakman, until recently my partner running the Foreign Policy Essay at Lawfare, questions many of these supposed truths. She argues that the U.S.-Kurdish relationship is far more problematic, or at least should be, than most policymakers recognize.