Washington Kurdish Institute
The two most effective forces fighting the terror groups of ISIS, al Qaeda, and others in the Middle East have been the Peshmerga forces in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Northern and Eastern Syria. Both forces have been members of the US-led global coalition to defeat ISIS.
In Iraq, the Peshmerga forces have been a recognized defense entity of the Kurdistan region since 2005. However, they face challenges including funding from the federal government and division into two factions loyal to the main political parties: the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
In Syria, the SDF continues fighting the sleeper cells and remains of ISIS terrorists while still holding and guarding tens of thousands of ISIS captives and their families.The SDF experienced setbacks when Turkey invaded the Kurdish region last October and now face existential threats due to Russia’s pressure to enroll them into the Syrian Arab Army and to the continuation of Turkey’s attacks on the region.
The panel discussed the structure, reforms, challenges, and future of these forces and why it matters for the US and the international community.
Speakers:
Najmaldin Karim– President of the WKI & Former Governor of Kirkuk Province- Iraq. Brief remarks
Wladimir van Wilgenburg– Author of The Kurds of Northern Syria, Journalist, M.A. Conflict & Kurdish Studies. Brief remarks
John Holland-McCowan– Research Fellow at the Belfer Center’s International Security Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, PhD candidate at War Studies Department at King’s College London. Brief remarks
Matthew Cancian– PhD candidate in Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, M.A. in Law and Diplomacy Fletcher School, Former Marine officer. Brief remarks
About Speakers:
Dr. Najmaldin Karim is the President of the Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI) and former governor of Kirkuk province-Iraq. Dr. Karim was born in Kirkuk Iraq, where he finished his high school education, before attending Mosul Medical College. After medical school, Dr. Karim was elected to the leadership of the Kurdish Student Union. In 1972, he joined the peshmerga forces and served as a physician and peshmerga until March 1975. Dr. Karim immigrated to the United States in 1976, where he finished his residency at George Washington University specializing in neurosurgery where he also served as an associate clinical professor. In the U.S., Dr. Karim was a pioneer of Kurdish activism, and was a founding member of the Kurdish National Congress of North America, serving as its president from 1991 to 1999. Dr. Karim testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June 1990 on Saddam Hussein’s atrocities in Kurdistan, including the Anfal campaign of genocide and the use of chemical weapons, and testified before numerous other congressional committees relating to Iraq and Kurdistan. In April 1991, Dr. Karim was the first Kurd to be officially received by the U.S. State Department. Read more.
Wladimir van Wilgenburg is an analyst of the Middle East, with a particular focus on Kurdish issues. Wladimir has closely covered key events on the ground, including the battles with the Islamic State inRaqqa, Makhmour, Bashiqa, Sinjar, and Baghouz Fawqani. He is the co-author of the recently published book The Kurds of Northern Syria:Governance, Diversity and Conflicts. His book provides a nuanced assessment of the Kurdish autonomous experience and prospects for self-rule in northeast Syria. Wladimir had unprecedented access to northeast Syria and conducted momentous field work to encapsulate the evolution of self-rule in Rojava.
John Holland-McCowan is a Research Fellow at the Belfer Center’s International Security Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is completing a doctoral dissertation analyzing the PYD, SDF, and their U.S.-led coalition backed fight against ISIS in the War Studies Department at King’s College London. While at the Belfer Center, John is also analyzing the opportunities and limitations the “by, with, and through” model presents to states and their violent non-state actor partners. He holds an M.A. in Terrorism, Security, and Society from King’s College London and a B.A. in Government with a minor in Archeology from Harvard College.
Matthew Cancian is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is writing his thesis about combatant psychology based on a survey of 2,301 Peshmerga conducted during the summer of 2017. Previously Matthew served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, deploying to Sangin, Afghanistan in 2011 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. He holds a B.A. in History from the University of Virginia and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts.