The Presence of the Kurdistan Region- Iraq as a Non-state Actor at the International Level

Abstract

The last decade of the 20th century bring about some global and regional changes and developments. Perhaps the most important for us (in this part of Kurdistan) is the reemergence in international arena and creation of a self-governing authority and a de facto region called the Kurdistan Region - Iraq. Highlighting this phenomenon and understanding its meaning and dimensions will be the main problem of our research and we assume that the Kurdistan Region-Iraq is present at the international level and can act as a non-state actor in international relations. Therefore, we use the concept of non-state actors as a theoretical tool to approach the subject and in order to determine the boundaries of our discussion and level of analysis; we resort to the three images theory or the so-called levels of analysis. Regarding the time framework of our research, it starts from the last decade of the last century until the present time, and we have a look at the future of this presence. Therefore, we divide our research into two sections: In the first section, we discuss non-state actors as the theoretical basis of the research. The second section will be devoted to discussing the presence of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as a non-state actor at the international arena and the opportunities and challenges of this presence, and consequently we will focus on the future of this presence.