Imagined or real: the intersection of tribalism and nationalism in the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)

Rather than regarding group identities as given and essential to a person, we propose that they need to be explored as temporary evocations and loyalties within the daily struggle over power and resource allocation. Due to repetitive evocations they take on the appearance of quasi-permanence; taken as such, group identities (such as tribe, nation, etc.) are no longer essential nor are they necessarily mutually exclusive; instead they co-exist in the contemporary Kurdish Regional Government, creating significant fault lines within the newly emerging nation-state.