Kurdish and Palestinian Quests for Self-Determination

Over the past few years, both the Kurds of the Northern Syrian enclaves of Rojava, represented by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and the Palestinians, represented by the Palestinian Authority (PA), have made great gains in the field of public diplomacy. This policy brief assesses the viability of these two national movements’ quests for self-determination in the current regional situation. Through a comparison of the Kurdish and Palestinian cases, we argue that nationalism and self-determination are not static ideologies. Rather, what national independence means transforms in response to the opportunities and constraints presented by the regional context. Notions of nationhood and demands for independence are thus negotiated through what we term the “politics of the possible”.