Under international pressure, the Kurdistan region of Iraq has over the past few years made some progress in reforming and institutionalizing its armed forces. But despite the efforts, unification appears a distant prospect as the Peshmerga remains under political influence. Known as the Peshmerga—meaning “those who face death”—the two main Iraqi Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), command different sections of the regional army. The lack of integration of the disparate forces has long been a matter of intense debate and controversy, with Minister of the Peshmerga Shoresh Esmail, from the PUK, even threatening to resign over the ruling parties’ interference within the ministry. 

The history of the Peshmerga is complex. It has a multifaceted identity, and at different points through history has seen its members being referred to as rebels, militiamen, and now soldiers. Following a revolt against the Ba’ath Party and Saddam Hussein’s regime in 1991, the KDP and PUK established a semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq and mobilized troops under the umbrella of the Peshmerga. After the fall of Saddam in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion, the 2005 Iraqi Constitution gave the Kurdistan region the right to organize its own security force, of which the Peshmerga became an integral part. 

To reiterate, the Peshmerga is not a unified entity. The Kurdistan regional parliament passed a law in 1992 which banned the mobilization of an army by any political party. But the KDP’s Unit 80 and the...