Iraqi Kurdistan, Winter 2011
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During the Tufts' winter intersession 2010-11, the Tufts New Initiative for Middle East Peace (NIMEP) is in Iraqi Kurdistan for its eighth annual fact-finding mission (photo above is of the group at the Textile Museum in the Citadel in Erbil, photo by Ian MacLellan). In the past seven years, the group has traveled to Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel/West Bank, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
On the research trip, each student will focus on a specific subject which they will have researched in-depth beforehand, in conjunction with the group preparation. The students will spend two weeks in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, where they will conduct interviews with business professionals, community activists, political leaders, academics, and others who can shed light on the recent developments in the region. Every student will compile their findings from these meetings and their extensive pre- and post-trip research into formal articles and papers.
This trip would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of Shahla Wali Al-Kli, a Fletcher alumna and Senior Advisor to the Speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament, who worked tirelessly to plan our busy schedule, arrange high-level meetings and plan multiple trips to provide the group a comprehensive understanding of history, culture and politics of the Kurdistan Region.
To follow the students' trip, visit their blog, and for more photos, visit Ian's blog.
Khaled Al-Sharikh
Khaled Al-Sharikh is a senior at Tufts University double majoring in International Relations and Economics. He is co-leading this year’s trip to Kurdistan and is currently one of the principal editors of the NIMEP Insights journal. Khaled participated in NIMEP’s fact finding mission in Syria, and co-authored an article, “Moving Beyond the Golan Heights: The True Impediments to an Israeli-Syrian peace”, published in Fall 2008 edition of NIMEP Insights. Having grown up as a member of a Kuwaiti diplomat’s family, he lived in Japan, Germany and Belgium. While he credits his diverse upbringing for providing him with a sense of international citizenship and a globally oriented view of the world, Khaled firmly classifies himself as a Kuwaiti and is set on returning to his country upon graduation. Khaled is fluent in Arabic, English and French. His main interests are the prospects of democracy in Iraq, the dynamics of regional hegemony in the Middle East and the impediments to peace between Israel, on one hand, and Palestinians and Israel’s neighbors on the other. While on the trip, Khaled will be researching Turkish investments in Kurdistan.
Jacqueline Devigne
Jacqueline is a senior majoring in International Relations and French. She is particularly interested in civilian-military relations and international security issues. She dedicates her dwindling spare time to Tufts Dance Collective, Gospel Choir, and various schemes to assemble a shoe collection that would bring envy to Imelda Marcos. Jacqueline will be researching the status of the Kurdish armed forces (Peshmerga) in the post-invasion Iraq. She would like to investigate how various political parties in Kurdistan utilize or exploit the Peshmerga for political purposes, as well as how the Peshmerga forces may influence the region's foreign policy objectives. She is very excited to participate in this NIMEP trip to investigate the creation of defense forces in a growingly autonomous region.
Patrick Doherty
Patrick Doherty is a senior at Tufts University double majoring in International Relations and History. A native of Sharon, Massachusetts, he is fully committed to pursuing a career in international affairs, and spent last summer interning at the United Nations Association of Greater Boston. In the spring of 2010, he studied in France through the Tufts-in-Paris program, cross enrolled at l’Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and l’Institut Catholique de Paris. In addition to his involvement with NIMEP, Doherty has been very active in the Tufts community, proudly representing the University as a member of the men’s soccer team. A speaker of English and French, he will be completing his undergraduate studies early in December 2010. In Kurdistan, Doherty will be evaluating the relationship between the Kurdish Regional Government and the Republic of Iraq, focusing on the former’s growing foreign relations autonomy of the KRG. He hopes to investigate the degree to which an autonomous Kurdish political entity on the international stage undermines the integrity of a unified Iraq.
Patricia Letayf
Patricia Letayf is a senior majoring in International Relations with a concentration in the Middle East and a minor in Economics. Because both her parents were raised in the Middle East, she is interested in studying Lebanon and the impact this small country has on its border countries—Israel and Syria. Her primary focus includes the role of non-state actors and the Arab-Israeli conflict. In 2009 Patricia was a delegate of the Israel/West Bank fact-finding mission and researched the impediments to an Israeli-Lebanese peace. Last winter, Patricia co-led the NIMEP research trip to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates where she studied security strategies and defense capabilities of the Gulf states. In addition to participating in NIMEP, Patricia coordinates BookMatch, an after-school reading program for fourth and fifth graders that runs in two Medford public schools. While in Kurdistan, Patricia will be collaborating with Amit Paz to research the issues affected Kirkuk and its impact on the struggle for an autonomous Kurdistan.
Ian MacLellan
Ian is a photojournalist and student of Geological Science interested in water. He has worked as a photographer across the United States, in France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Israel, Kenya, and Uganda documenting personal projects and commissioned works. As a photographer, he has worked for organizations like International Bridges to Justice and Harvard Magazine. At Tufts he is the President of Engineers Without Borders and an avid member of Exposure, Tufts’ photojournalism and documentary studies program. Ian is from Boston and loves long distance running, nature, and rock climbing. This January in Kurdistan, Ian will be the official photographer of the student delegation.
Kathryn Olson
Kathryn Olson is a sophomore from Portland, Oregon majoring in Economics and International Relations with a concentration in International Security. Since joining NIMEP, she has become very interested in ethnonationalism and democracy in the Middle East. Her main research interests include refugee crisis management, gender politics, the economics of migration, and failed states. At Tufts, she volunteers with a local non-profit called LIFT, works with the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive student think tank, and is a news editor for the Tufts Daily. She is also interested in photojournalism, running marathons, and the Portland Trail Blazers.In Kurdistan, she will be researching how the fragmented political situation and the resurgence of tribal identity has affected women's rights. The 2006 unification agreement between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the reliance of these parties on local tribal organizations such as the komelayeti have severely affected women's representation in the Kurdish National Assembly (KNA). Exacerbating the problem is the fact that many Kurdish women do not see the government as a legitimate guarantor of their rights. Kathryn seeks a clearer understanding of these issues and how they will affect the security situation in Kurdistan.
Amit Paz
Amit Paz is a senior at Tufts University. A double major in International Relations and Political Science, Amit has been involved with NIMEP since his freshman year. His first official contribution to the NIMEP Insights Journal was an essay responding to the critically-received book “The Israel Lobby,” written by Professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, in which he debates the co-authors’ claims of overabundant Israeli influence on American foreign policy. During his sophomore year, Amit was chosen to co-lead NIMEP’s weekly sialogue sessions in which current events and trends in the Middle East are discussed and analyzed by NIMEP members. His sophomore year also yielded participation in the annual NIMEP research trip which happened to be in Israel and the West Bank. His research topic covered Israeli settlements and their obstacle to peace between Israelis and Palestinians. This research culminated in another NIMEP Insights Journal article titled “A Paradox of Peacemaking.” Amit is co-leading the 2010 NIMEP research trip to Kurdistan and researching the issue of oil in Kirkuk.
Mark Rafferty
Mark Rafferty is a sophomore majoring in Arabic and International Relations with a concentration in the Middle East and South Asia. Mark devotes his time at Tufts to studying comparative politics, sociology, US-Arab relations, Middle Eastern history, and comparative religions, and he writes for campus publications such as the Tufts Roundtable. In his freshman year, Mark participated in the EPIIC South Asia colloquium, during which he traveled to Bangladesh and conducted an independent field study on rural development NGOs and their community engagement ractices. Mark continued exploring South Asia during the summer of 2010, interning with a media organization in Geneva researching humanitarian activity in Afghanistan. In his spare time on campus, Mark is active in the Tufts Christian Fellowship and sings with 'Anchord', a student Christian a capella group. In Iraqi Kurdistan, Mark will be researching relations between the KRG and Iran and their implications for Kurdistan's future role in federal Iraq. He will be examining the official ties between the two governments, private sector investment and trade, and informal cross-border family networks. His research will enable a rich description of Iranian soft power in Iraqi Kurdistan and offer a more thorough analysis of Kurdistan's evolving relations with the central Iraqi state.
Raj Reddy
Raj is a junior born and raised near Boston. He is majoring in Political Science, minoring in Religious Studies, and pursuing a dual degree Master’s in Public Health at the Medical School. He has been a member of the IGL’s other program BUILD, both in Guatemala and India, since his freshman year and is now serving as an administrative advisor for the India team. He has also worked as a research assistant at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Tufts Psychology Department. Currently, he is interning at both Physicians for Human Rights and the Tufts Medical School, researching HIV/AIDS. He hopes to bring his health background to NIMEP, researching humanitarian aid and health system governance in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Afsheen Sharifzadeh
Afsheen Sharifzadeh is a sophomore from Westwood, Massachusetts. As a Pre-Medical student, he plans on majoring in History with a focus on the Middle East. In addition to participating in NIMEP, Afsheen is the President of the Persian Students Association, a Senior Health Educator of Peer Health Exchange, a member of the Sharewood Project, and an English teacher for the janitorial staff of Tufts University. Outside of school, Afsheen enjoys a variety of activities such as spending time with family and friends, playing tennis, reading science and anthropology-oriented nonfiction books, learning new languages, spending time outdoors, and trying new foods. Afsheen is fluent in English, Persian, and Spanish, is conversationally fluent in Arabic, French, Portuguese, Kurdish and Lari and has extended knowledge of several other languages. In Kurdistan, Afsheen will be researching the progressive state of women’s rights as compared to other societies in the region. Some questions he would like to explore are how Kurdish women use democracy as a vehicle for social and political progress and how women will ultimately fit into the sociopolitical mosaic of this emerging Middle Eastern democracy.
Julia Silberman
Julia Silberman is a senior at Tufts University. She is majoring in international relations with a concentration in economic development. Though her academic interests are varied they focus on national and international political structures and power dynamics within these structures. She is further interested in the role of international organizations in the world community. In 2008 she participated in a research trip to Guatemala with the IGL student group, PPRI, led by an IGL fellow, Jose Maria Argueta. A large portion or her time is taken up by being a catcher on the Tufts Varsity Softball Team. In Kurdistan, Julia will be answering the question, from where is law derived? She hopes this will provide insight into the dispute about the legality of the writing of Kurdistan’s constitution and the dispute between Iraq and Kurdistan about selling oil extraction rights to foreign companies. She further hopes to extrapolate theories about instituting rule of law into a country during state building processes.
TRIP MENTORS
Zach Iscol
An IGL INSPIRE Fellow, Zach Iscol is a combat decorated former Marine infantry Officer, who did two tours in Iraq and served throughout Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. He played a significant role in the establishment of the U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command as a team leader and the first officer in charge of recruiting, screening, assessment, and selection. Zach also worked as an analyst on the 2004 Quadrennial Defense Review. Upon leaving active duty, he worked for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, has traveled extensively abroad, and worked alongside NGOs and other non-profits. Currently an independent writer, director, and producer, Zach is finishing his first film, THE WESTERN FRONT, an official selection of the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.
Rana Abdul-Aziz
Rana is a native of Baghdad, Iraq received her BA in International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies and MA in Education from Tufts University. She is also an IGL Alum, taking part in the TILIP Program (2002-03). She has worked, studied and traveled extensively to the Middle East in such countries as Iraq, Jordan and Egypt focusing on issues relating to education, pedagogy, teacher training, conflict resolution and civil society. She is currently the Arabic Language Coordinator and Lecturer at Tufts. This will be Rana's first time back to Iraq since 2004 and to Kurdistan since 1989.