Challenges of the Economic Development of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region in the Middle East

According to the regional security complex theory, until 2003, the Middle East had an independent regional security complex with three security sub-complexes in Leavant, Persian Gulf and Maghreb. The changes that happened in the region, including the US attack on Iraq (2003), the Arab Spring (2011) and ISIS (2014), etc., caused a series of security forces to undergo changes and transformations. A new security subcategory is centered on the Kurdish issue. This has happened in the shadow of the increasing role of the Kurds in the Middle East, especially in the two countries of Iraq and Syria. Since 2003, within the framework of the Federal Republic of Iraq, the Kurds have had the opportunity to change their semi-autonomous government of the 1990s to a federal government under the name of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government. On the other hand, the Kurdistan region of Iraq, as an emerging regional actor, has been trying to implement various development programs in the economic field. Although the economic situation of the Kurdistan region is better compared to other regions of Iraq, the aforementioned programs have faced various problems and obstacles. The upcoming article will deal with the various complications and difficulties that the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq is facing in terms of economic development. The main question is, what has been the impact of being in the crisis-producing region of the Middle East on the economic development plan of the Kurdistan Regional Government? By using the descriptive-analytical methods as well as the application of the theory of the regional security complex, we will find that the economic development of the Kurdistan region of Iraq is mainly affected by the power relations between the main actors and security interdependencies in the new Kurdish security sub-group. Therefore, the creation of an accepted role in this sub-group in the shadow De-escalation of political-security tensions and establishing balanced relations with various extra-regional and regional actors is the basic necessity of this.