Looking at Insurgent Groups and How They Use International Diplomacy to Gain Support

Morgan Kaplan, a research fellow with the Belfer Center’s International Security Program, researches the international politics of rebellion with a focus on how insurgent groups use international diplomacy to solicit third-party support.

In March, Kaplan traveled to Iraqi Kurdistan to continue his research on international diplomacy of armed non-state actors. He has conducted fieldwork in the area for the past three years examining the diverse diplomatic strategies used by the Iraqi-Kurdish movement to gain third-party support from the 1960s through the 1990s. On his most recent trip, Kaplan interviewed Kurdish leaders and officials who played key roles in crafting, directing, and executing that diplomacy.

In addition to his interviews in March, Kaplan took part in the Fifth Annual Sulaimani Forum, hosted by the Institute of Regional and International Studies at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani, where participants discussed the most important political, military, social, and economic issues facing the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the broader Middle East.

Kaplan’s fieldwork has also taken place in the West Bank, where he has interviewed current and former Palestinian diplomats and officials to better understand the international diplomatic strategies of the Palestinian national movement toward the end of the 20th century. His research will culminate in a book about the international diplomatic strategies of the Iraqi-Kurdistan and Palestinian national movements to gain third-party support through the late 1990s. It is tentatively titled Persuading Power: Insurgent Diplomacy and the International Politics of Rebellion.