Date of Award:
8-2020
Document Type:
Thesis
Degree Name:
Master of Science (MS)
Department:
Political Science
Committee Chair(s)
Anna O. Pechenkina
Committee
Anna O. Pechenkina
Committee
Jeannie Johnson
Committee
Nicole Allen
Abstract
In the mid-1990s the two Kurdish parties in Iraq—the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)—signed two power-sharing agreements, which had dramatically different results. The 1992 50-50 Agreement ended in conflict while the 1998 Washington Agreement ended in long-lasting peace.
I examine both the agreements and their surrounding context to identify what explains the success or failure of these two agreements in establishing long-lasting and cooperative peace. I find that the presence or absence of peace is due to both the language of the agreements and the context in which they were created. I demonstrate this through an examination of the two learning periods the Iraqi Kurds experienced, one through fighting from 1994-1997 and the second through a peacetime separation into two governorates from 1998-2006.
One of the most important conclusions is that the endemic Koya/Shaqlawa peace process between the two Iraqi Kurdish parties prior to the 1998 Washington Agreement resulted in a more ambiguous agreement in 1998 which laid the ground work for greater cooperation over the next decade culminating in the 2006 Kurdistan Regional Government Unification Agreement.
Checksum
7acc0208ef073d2b4b36a14da3ec8894
Recommended Citation
Hugh, Brigitte E., "Perpetuating Peace: Context Versus Contents of the Power-Sharing Agreements Between the KDP and PUK of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in 1992 and 1998" (2020). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023. 7821.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/7821
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