More than 6,000 miles away from UCF is a region with twice as many people as Orlando that is striving to build a practical, federal democracy.
Qubad Talabani, son of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and U.S. representative of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq, spoke on behalf of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on the afternoon of Aug. 9 in front of more than 100 UCF students and faculty first event of UCF's new Global Peace and Security Studies Program.
As soon as he approached the microphone, Talabani thanked UCF for welcoming him back to campus and for being one of the first Kurdish Political Studies Initiatives in the U.S.
"Here is where the first steps were taken towards greater cooperation and knowledge between our two regions, Central Florida and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq," said Talabani.
One of the first things he highlighted was the formal end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq and his concern for his region and the country as a whole.
"Studies show that roughly 50 percent of the time, war will reoccur within five years of any so-called ‘cease fire'," Talabani said. "Ken Pollack, director for the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, recently noted that it is possible to imagine Iraq muddling on forwards toward peace, pluralism and even prosperity, but only if it gets the right breaks and a fair amount of continued help from the United States, from the United Nations and its neighbors."
Talabani also said that Pollack noted that regions like Iraq have a dangerous propensity to return to conflict.
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