After Sovereignty: A Diplomat's View of Kurdish Governance

About This Event:

Part One of Models of Kurdish Governance and Participation in the Middle East, a series examining how Kurds should take part in political and economic life across the region.

The Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace at SIS is pleased to host a conversation with Ambassador Joey Hood on the future of Kurdish political, economic, and social participation in the Middle East.

The Kurds are often described as one of the world's largest stateless peoples, a condition that has shaped the politics of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran for the better part of a century. It raises a question that grows more pressing as the region shifts: if Kurds cannot have a sovereign state, what are the alternatives? This first conversation approaches that question from the standpoint of diplomacy and statecraft.

Events across the region have lent the question new urgency. Turkey has opened a peace process with the PKK. In Syria, Kurdish gains have experienced setbacks as Damascus is assembling a new political order whose contours remain unsettled. In Iraq, the federal government and the Kurdistan Region remain in tension over the terms of federalism. In Iran, Kurds face growing pressure. In each setting, long-standing debates over political and economic participation, self-governance, and autonomy are being actively renegotiated.

Moderated by Yerevan Saeed, Barzani Scholar-in-Residence and Director of the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace at the School of International Service, American University, the discussion draws on Ambassador Hood's extensive diplomatic experience in Iraq, and across the Middle East to consider what federalism, decentralization, power-sharing, and local governance can contribute to a durable peace, and what role the United States might play in supporting it.

We invite you to join us for this timely and substantive conversation.

Food will be provided at the end of the event.

Bios:

Ambassador Joey Hood served as an American diplomat for over 25 years across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in Washington, DC. Since retiring in February 2026, he comments daily on Arabic- and Kurdish-language media, writes frequent editorials, and advises companies interested in entering or expanding in MENA markets. Before his diplomatic career, Ambassador Hood was a Fulbright Scholar in Burkina Faso, and conducted research on religious figures in Senegalese society.

Dr. Yerevan Saeed is the Barzani Scholar-in-Residence in the Department of Politics, Governance & Economics at American University's School of International Service in Washington, where he also directs the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace. His research focuses on political economy, energy politics, conflict resolution, and Kurdish studies, with particular attention to Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and the Gulf states. His scholarship and policy analysis examine regional security, governance, and the evolving dynamics of state and non-state actors across the Middle East.

He is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. He has previously served as Lecturer at the University of Kurdistan Hewlêr, Associate Fellow at the Middle East Research Institute, and Visiting Scholar and Nonresident Fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Earlier in his career, he was a Middle East Specialist at Stratfor and worked as a journalist and translator across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, contributing to The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, and The Guardian.

His analysis has appeared in publications of the Wilson Center, the Quincy Institute, the New Lines Institute, the Middle East Institute, The Hill, The National Interest, NBC News, and Al Jazeera, among others. He is frequently cited by international media, including Voice of America, CNN, and S&P Global, and regularly presents at international conferences and high-level policy forums.

Parking Information:

Parking is available at the School of International Service Garage.

Parking rates are $2.00 per hour or $16.00 per day, and are paid via the Pay-As-You-Go Machines located in the elevator lobbies or in the front of the parking lot and require your license plate number. Find more information here.