State-Nation Dilemma and Kurdish Issue: Crisis of Governability in West Asia

Ever since the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the process of state and nation making in modern times is going on. The collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and post-Cold War period saw the emergence of fifteen new states and several other sovereign states from the ruins of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia in Eastern Europe. The problems of governance and political legitimacy are directly linked with the demand for new nation-states globally. The threats unleashed by interstate Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) in Syria and Iraq have substantially posed problems of governance and legitimacy threatening the survival of several states in the Middle East. The question of nation-state was almost accepted as resolved and settled in the region but the end of Cold War and Soviet collapse again brought the issue on the global forefront and the political structure of several states have been challenged. The state-centred, faith-centred and ethnicity-centred forces are confronting each other and the nation-state dilemma has got more pronounced and complicated, as states are not in a position to manage the nations within. This article tries to probe the issues of governance, political legitimacy and gross violation of basic human rights of the ethno-national groups, minority ethnic groups and weaker sections of society. It also makes an attempt to look for and devise certain alternatives and methods to resolve the dilemma of nation-state in the Middle East in general and drawing lessons for the rest of the globe. The Kurdish issue may be taken as a case study which has once again become a matter of deep concern and its timely resolution has drawn worldwide attention and concern. The survival of a large number of people is at stake as a result of the nation-state dilemma, and if this is not properly taken care of, it will spread globally and affect world peace and order.