Between Washington, Tel Aviv, and Tehran: Kurdistan’s Precarious Position

School of International Service

This event is a webinar and the zoom link will be shared upon registration.

About This Event:The Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace (GKIP) at American University’s School of International Service (SIS) invites you to a timely discussion on how the conflict between the United States and Israel on one side, and Iran on the other, is affecting the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), Iraq, and the broader Middle East.Kurdistan has faced repeated attacks from Iran and Iran-aligned Iraqi Shi’a militias, resulting in significant harm to civilians, regional stability, and economic security. Over 600 attacks have targeted civilian areas, energy infrastructure, and U.S. diplomatic and military sites, causing more than 100 casualties, including 14 deaths.The economic impact has been severe. Strikes on oil fields have reduced production and exports, causing fuel shortages and lower government revenues. These challenges have deterred foreign investment and slowed economic growth. Tensions between Erbil and Baghdad have also increased, with federal budget transfers withheld and many public-sector salaries unpaid for months. As a result, Kurdistan is now at the center of broader regional rivalries.This webinar will examine the motivations behind these attacks, the challenges Baghdad faces in controlling armed groups, and the broader implications for Iraq’s stability and international partnerships. The conversation will address the impact on U.S.-Iraq relations and the future of the Kurdistan Region as it becomes involuntarily entangled in the conflict among Washington, Tehran, and Tel Aviv. Bios:Dr. Dlawer Ala’Aldeen is the Founding President of the Middle East Research Institute, former Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Kurdistan Regional Government (2009-2012), and Professor of Medicine in Nottingham University, UK.Ala’Aldeen was born and brought up in Kurdistan Region of Iraq, studied medicine in Baghdad and completed his postgraduate studies (MSc, PhD, FRCPath) in London, UK. He was a Medical Research Council Fellow before his clinical academic appointment in Nottingham University in 1994. He held a number of senior board and executive positions at several national institutions and learned societies in the UK, including the Royal College of Pathologists, the Medical Research Council, the Health Protection Agency and Society for General Microbiology. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed international journals and co-authored several books in the field of medicine. Ala’Aldeen co-founded the Kurdish Scientific and Medical Association, an advocacy organisation focused on protecting Kurdish human rights and influencing UK and USA policies on the Kurds. He also took an academic interest in, and investigated and published scientific evidence for, the use of chemical weapons in Kurdistan. He was a member of the British Working Party on Chemical and Biological Weapons. He took part in the production of numerous television documentaries and his publication, ‘Death Clouds’ was used in indictment of members of the former Iraqi regime. He later published his memoires on lobbying activities in his book: ‘Lobbying for a Stateless Nation’ in 2007.Ala’Aldeen has been involved since 1992 in supporting the nation-building and capacity building projects in Kurdistan Region. In October 2009, he joined Dr Barham Salih’s Cabinet of Kurdistan Regional Government as Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research (until 5 April, 2012). He initiated an ambitious programme to radically reform the system of Higher Education in Kurdistan. The programme focused on improving quality of higher education and training, preparing Universities for independence, modernising research, reforming the governance system to achieve social justice, equal opportunities and gender equality. He also led his Government’s major scholarship program for sending thousands of students abroad for Masters and PhD studies. His latest book, Nation Building and the System of Self-Governance in Kurdistan Region, highlights the challenges faced by the KRG and possible directions it might pursue. Kenneth M. Pollack, PhD., is Vice President for Policy at the Middle East Institute. Previously he was a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he worked on Middle Eastern political-military affairs, focusing in particular on Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf countries.Dr. Pollack was also formerly affiliated with the Brookings Institution, where he was a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy. Before that, he was the center’s director and director of research. Dr. Pollack served twice at the National Security Council, first as director for Near East and South Asian affairs and then as director for Persian Gulf affairs. He began his career as a Persian Gulf military analyst at the CIA, where he was the principal author of the CIA’s classified postmortem on Iraqi strategy and military operations during the Persian Gulf War. Among other recognitions, Dr. Pollack was awarded the CIA’s Exceptional Performance Award twice and the Certificate of Distinction for Outstanding Performance of Duty, both for work on the Persian Gulf War.Dr. Pollack has also worked on long-term issues related to Middle Eastern political and military affairs for the Joint Chiefs of Staff when he was a senior research professor at the Institute for National Security Studies at National Defense University.Dr. Pollack is the author of 10 books, including “Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness” (Oxford University Press, 2019), a history of Arab armies from the end of World War II to the present, in which he assesses the performance of Arab armed forces and the reason for their difficulties; “Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb, and American Strategy” (Simon &amp; Schuster, 2013), named one of the “Best Books of 2013” by The Economist and one of the “100 Notable Books of 2013” by The New York Times; “A Path out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East” (Random House, 2008), a Washington Post and Foreign Affairs bestseller, which was chosen as one of The Washington Post’s “Best Books of the Year” for 2008 and as an editor’s choice of The New York Times Book Review; “The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America” (Random House, 2004); and “The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq” (Random House, 2002), a New York Times and Washington Post bestseller.Dr. Pollack is the author of numerous articles and has been published in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, and The Atlantic, among others.He received a bachelor’s from Yale University and a doctorate in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yerevan Saeed (moderator) is the Barzani Scholar-in-Residence in the Department of Politics, Governance &amp; Economics at American University’s School of International Service, where he also serves as director of the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace. Saeed is a nonresident senior fellow with the Iraq Initiative in the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programs. His research focuses on the political economy, energy politics, conflict resolution, and Kurdish studies, with emphasis on Iraq, Turkey, Iran, the Gulf states, and the broader Middle East.Saeed has held academic and research positions including lecturer at the University of Kurdistan Hewler, visiting scholar at Arab Gulf Institute, and associate fellow at the Middle East Research Institute.Professionally, he worked as a Middle East specialist at Stratfor in 2013 and served as the White House correspondent in Washington, DC, for Rudaw TV in 2015, covering U.S. foreign policy and regional developments. From 2003 to 2007, Saeed worked in Kurdistan and Iraq as a journalist and translator for prominent international outlets including the New York Times, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, BBC, and the Guardian. These experiences continue to shape his research and policy perspectives.A regular contributor to scholarly and policy discourse, Saeed’s work has appeared on the Atlantic Council, Arab Gulf States Institute, the Wilson Center, the New Lines Institute, The Diplomatic Courier, The Hill, Fikra Forum (The Washington Institute), the Middle East Institute, Al Jazeera, Majalla Magazine, and Rudaw.He is frequently quoted by global media, including CNN, Voice of America, NPR, S&amp;P Global, Petroleum Economist, Voice of Russia, and the National, and often presents at international conferences.

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Between Washington, Tel Aviv, and Tehran: Kurdistan’s Precarious Position

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