IWP Professor Paul Davis, Executive Vice President Chris Glass, and Chief Information Officer Dean Lane met with representatives of the University of Duhok on June 19. Attending from Kurdistan was Dr. Nahro Zagros who works with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister and Dr. Dawood S. Atrushi. Dr. Dawood is the President of the University of Duhok, which has been designated by the KRG to be our partner in an endeavor to establish a Kurdish Chair at The Institute of World Politics (IWP). Dr. Dawood also expressed interest in IWP providing a year-long certificate course of study in Diplomacy.
Participants in the meeting discussed Kurdish students taking classes at IWP (both online and some in person). During the conversation, Dr. Dawood expressed a willingness to sponsor IWP students, faculty, and staff going to Kurdistan. IWP will begin work on a draft curriculum, in conjunction with Dr. Dawood, planning for a start date in September.
The current U.S. representative (in a building nearby to IWP) is returning to Kurdistan, and her replacement arrives in early July. The new representative is Ms. Treefa Aziz, currently the Senior Foreign Affairs Advisor to PM Barzani. She was born in Kurdistan but moved to the U.S. when she was 8, and she lived here for 30 years. She is an attorney and took up her position on July 1st. Ms. Aziz will be our point of contact for the Kurdish Chair, and IWP looks forward to working with her once she is settled into her new position.
