ABSTRACT
Writing the conclusion of this book in early 2001, it appeared that Iraqi Kurdistan existed in a netherworld, caught in the web of the geopolitical complexities of the Middle East, but managing to survive as an independent de facto entity for as long as a situation remained by which Saddam Hussein was contained and Iraqi Kurds were allowed to continue with their de facto state-building enterprise. Indeed, in early 2001, little seemed to be occurring which would threaten the continued precarious existence of Iraqi Kurdistan and the associated Kurdish governments. However, the suicide attacks on New York and Washington DC of 11 September 2001 set in motion a chain of events which may herald either the institutionalization of the Kurdish de facto state as a recognized feature of Iraq and the Middle East, or, perhaps more likely, the demise of the Kurdish de facto state as a quasi-recognized entity in the tortured Iraqi state. 1
