Indeed, throughout the second decade of its existence, the KRG has experienced some major success in the process of state-building in the region. Amid the total collapse of the Iraqi state and society, the raging terror in the country and the outburst of sectarian violence, the KRG has exhibited stability and relative economic prosperity. Since reunification it has had two successful election-campaign, in the second of which the opposition movement, Gorran, gained nearly a quarter of the seats in the Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament. And during these two decades, some important measures have been taken in an effort to guarantee the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, women and the media, as well as measures to counter corruption in the region. The KRG is, in essence, a de facto state. It has gained domestic sovereignty, run its own civilian affairs and has independent (informal) relations with other states. Yet, its right to have such sovereignty is constantly disputed by international society, so does any aspiration to institutionalise this independence. Thus, it falls into the same category as other entities such as Somaliland, Taiwan, Kosovo, the Palestinian Authority, Nagorno-Karabakh and more. Interestingly enough, most of these states have gone through successful processes of state-building. Most students of the phenomenon of de facto statehood stress that such success has been achieved in spite of these entities’ lack of international legitimacy.
Posted on: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 20:45:16 +0000
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