ABSTRACT
Many studies have dealt with the role of good governance policies, political space, and democratisation in Kurdish integration with or secession from Iraq. This literature overlooks the contradictions between the Kurdish quest for nationhood and the Iraqi quest for a unitary state that guarantees Iraqi state sovereignty over all Iraqi territory, including Kurdistan. Scholars tend to ignore the characteristics of Kurdish quasi-states and their contribution to the reshaping of Kurdish-Iraqi relations. Many consider Iraq as a rogue state or failed state. However, the literature cannot answer the question of how and why Iraqi Kurdistan has developed into an unrecognised quasi-state.
