Long an island of stability in a Middle East marked by conflict, the Kurdish region of Iraq now faces a perfect storm. Its finances have been severely affected by the dramatic decline in the price of oil, its main source of revenue. The KRG also faces a constitutional crisis because President Masoud Barzani's term has ended without the Kurdish political parties finding a definitive way forward or agreement on succession. And the KRG's Peshmerga military force is engaged with the United States and its allies in an extended offensive to rout the self-declared Islamic State extremist group and liberate the nearby city of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest. Amidst all of this, President Barzani also has indicated that the KRG will hold a referendum in 2016 on whether the region should seek independence from Iraq.

This event was co-sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Center, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Kurdistan Regional Government Representation in the United States. Continue the conversation on Twitter with #TalabaniDC.

Speakers

Nancy Lindborg, Opening Remarks
President, U.S. Institute of Peace

H.E. Qubad Talabani, Speaker
Deputy Prime Minister, Kurdistan Regional Government 

Henri J. Barkey, Moderator
Director, Middle East Program, the Wilson Center