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Mapping Power: The Shifting De Facto Boundaries of Kurdish Control in Iraq and Syria, 2011–2023
WANG Yifan, DING He, CHEN Yushang
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DOI:10.17265/2328-2134/2026.03.003
Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China
This paper examines the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and Syrian Rojava from 2011 to 2023, focusing on the expansion, contraction and fragmentation of their de facto borders, and exploring the underlying driving forces and geopolitical implications after the Arab Awakening. By combining theories of cartographic politics with historical analysis, the paper traces the evolution of Kurdish boundaries since the First World War and examines territorial reconfigurations associated with the rise of the Islamic State (IS), the Syrian civil war, the vacuum of state authority in Iraq, and intervention by the United States, Russia, and Türkiye. It shows how Kurdish autonomous entities used counterterrorism cooperation to obtain external support and expand their territorial reach, and how declining support, containment by neighboring states, and internal political divisions led to the contraction and fragmentation of boundaries. The paper argues that the formation of the de facto Kurdish boundaries arose not solely from aspirations for national independence, but from the result of the combined effects of a vacuum in state power, the needs of counterterrorism, and strategic intervention by other states. Furthermore, the Kurdish question does not merely reflect the survival predicament of one ethnic group, but also the long-standing structural tensions among ethnic identity, state sovereignty and geopolitical strategy in the modern international order.
cartographic
politics, de facto boundaries, regional upheaval, Kurdish question, Kurdish
Region of Iraq, Rojava
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