A talk by David L. Phillips, Columbia University
Monday 20 May 2019, 6 – 7.30pm
Brunei Gallery B104, SOAS, Russell Square WC1H 0XG
Chair: Isabel Käser
The event is organised by Peace in Kurdistan and SOAS Kurdish Society
David L. Phillips, who has been working on Kurdish issues for thirty years, will be talking about his newest book The Great Betrayal: How American Abandoned the Kurds and Lost the Middle East (Bloomsbury, 2018-2019), a political history of the Kurds, spanning the 20th and 21st centuries. He will be discussing Iraqi Kurdistan’s referendum on independence, America’s abandonment of Kirkuk in 2017, and the role of Kurdish fighters combating ISIS in Iraq and Syria, criticising both the Obama and Trump administrations for selling out the Kurds in a strategically flawed bid to placate America’s adversaries.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-great-betrayal-9781788313971/
David L. Phillips is Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. He served at a Senior Adviser and Foreign Affairs Expert to the U.S. Department of State during the administrations of Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama, and as a senior adviser to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Phillips has authored several books on Kurdish and regional issues, as well as scores of reports and articles. As an expert witness of Kurdish issues, Phillips has testified in the U.S. House of Representatives, the British House of Commons, the French Senate, and the European Parliament.
Isabel Käser has recently finished her PhD at the Centre for Gender Studies at SOAS, where she worked on the Kurdish women’s movement.
For more information please contact:
Peace in Kurdistan
Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question
Email: estella24@tiscali.co.uk
Tel.: 07846 666 804
www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com
SOAS Kurdish Society