ABSTRACT
The starting point of this research is the transformation of the Kurdish liberation movement in Iraq, rather rapidly, from a collection of guerrilla movements into the KRG. Since then, the KRG has led the political, economic and social life in the Kurdistan Region. This statement does not imply that it has done so successfully, or even successively – the civil war that took place between 1994 and 1997 severely interrupted the first stages of state-building in the Kurdistan Region, sending it back to the starting point. Yet, for most of the time the KRG has functioned as a quintessential de facto state.
