Paradiplomacy of Regional Governments in International Relations: The Foreign Relations of the Kurdistan Regional Government (2003 – 2010)

Until now there has been relatively little systematic analysis of the foreign relations of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Based on interviews with senior officials of the KRG, this article places this activity within the conceptual framework of paradiplomacy. It argues that, in the framework of regional geopolitics and economic benefits for the Kurdistan Region from its place in Iraq, the practice of this paradiplomacy does not indicate an intention to secede from Iraq.