Last week, the online magazine Macropolis penned an economic overview of modern Kurdistan.

Since the Gulf War, the Kurdistan Regional Government territories in northern Iraq have been semi-autonomous. What was once a wasteland ravaged by chemical weapons is now a thriving hub of commerce and culture – and Ambassador Dennis Ross played a pivotal role in helping the Kurdish people attain their contemporary prosperity.  

According to Macropolis, after the Gulf War concluded, Dennis Ross aggressively lobbied Secretary of State James Baker to visit the Northernmost provences of Iraq, which are now the de-facto state of Kurdistan. Until the moment he landed, Baker had been arguing with Ross that the United States needed to keep Iraq from splitting apart above all other concerns. Ross felt that America had a moral obligation to help the people who had been encouraged to rebel.

The visit to Kurdistan – via helicopter – changed all that, and on the plane journey back to the US, Baker called President Bush and told him the U.S. policy needed to change. “The American generals, who had been celebrating the end of their nice neat war, got a call from Washington telling them to prepare to airlift food within thirty-six hours and establish a no-fly zone above the area with immediate effect.”

You can read the piece in full here.

To find out more about Dennis Ross, or to book him as a geopolitical speaker for your conference or event, please contact Leo von Bülow-Quirk at [email protected] or call 0044 (0) 20 7792 8000.