The Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings Institution is hosting a special event (see details below) for Professor Dlawer Ala’Aldeen, President of The Middle East Research Institute (MERI), and Samuel Morris, Research Fellow at MERI, to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing Iraq’s Kurds. The event will take place on Tuesday, October 13, 2015, 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm at The Brookings Institution, 1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington DC.
The Future of Kurdistan
Tuesday, October 13, 2015, 12:30 pm — 2:00 pm
The Brookings Institution, 1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC
Dlawer Ala’Aldeen,
Founding President, MERI
Samuel Morris,
Research Fellow, MERI
Moderated by
Kenneth M. Pollack
Senior Fellow, Center for Middle East Policy
The Brookings Institution
The civil wars in Iraq and Syria and the rise of the Islamic State have renewed the debate about the long-term viability of a unified Iraqi state that includes Iraq’s Kurds and reenergized calls for the establishment of an independent Iraqi Kurdistan. Yet the question of Kurdistan requires not only hard choices about the relationship between Baghdad and Erbil, but critical choices about the internal politics, economic development and social structure of Kurdish society as well.
How should the Kurds handle Baghdad, Tehran and Ankara? How should the status of Kirkuk and other disputed territories be resolved? How can the KRG best address the needs of its own multi-ethnic, multi-religious population? Without answers to these and other questions, the question of Kurdistan and its relationship to the government in Baghdad will never be answered and stability in this part of the world will always be fleeting.
To discuss the challenges and opportunities facing Iraq’s Kurds, the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings would like to invite you to a lunch discussion at 12:30 pm on Tuesday, October 13 with H.E. Dlawer Ala’Aldeen, Founding President of the Middle East Research Institute (MERI) and former Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the KRG (2009-2012), and Samuel Morris, a Research Fellow at MERI. MERI has recently published two reports in a series on the future of the KRG, the first on the future status of Kirkuk, and the second on religious and ethnic minorities.
The lunch discussion will take place in the Saul/Zilkha Auditorium on the 1st floor of the Brookings Institution, located at 1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW. If you are able to join us, please contact Jennifer Williams at JEWilliams@brookings.edu no later than 5:00 pm on October 9. Lunch will be provided. Please note this event is private and the invitation is nontransferable.
To RSVP, please contact Jennifer Williams at JEWilliams@brookings.edu or call 202-797-6268.