Context, Opportunities and Threats: A Comparative Analysis of the KDP and the PUK in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq

The Kurdish ethnic-national contention in Iraq has undergone various, and contradictory, ups and downs since 1958. Using a synthesis of the conceptual tools of contemporary social movement theories, this study shows that shifts in the local, national, regional and international political contextual factors, along with the rational agents’ competency and cost-benefit-calculations and the resources at their disposal—and, to some extent, their ideational components—have substantially influenced the Kurdish political agents, the KDP and the PUK’s, mobilisation strategies since 1958. This thesis shows that there is a dialectical relationship between contemporary social movement theories and political contextual factors, and reveals that together they offer comprehensive frameworks for explaining the Kurdish ethnic-national contention as experienced through its political agents. Using a systematic thematic content analysis method, the KDP and the PUK’s ethnic-national struggle is investigated comparatively through four chronologically organised cycles (episodes) of contention.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Çifçi, Deniz

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kandil, Hazem

• Kurdistan Region in Iraq
• Kurdistan Democratic Party
• Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
• Social Movement Theories

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/fb440bd8-33f9-4820-ae0a-9b2058574fe8/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.116093

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/380504