Article Summary of "A Peace Zone for Kurdistan?" by Majid Tehranian

This article opens with a discussion of the necessity for Peace Zones in Kurdistan, Palestine, and Lebanon. The author defines a Peace Zone as a political entity whose sovereignty resides within the framework of the United Nations, an economic entity with a common market and "peace bonds" with other Peace Zones, and a culturally safe community that guarantees human rights and safety from violence for residents of the zone. This plan's goal is to make peace profitable to all sides, using peaceful resolution of conflict, economic prosperity through the common market arrangement, and ethnic autonomy and human rights to achieve a positive sum game. The process has been successfully implemented in the Philippines; other proposed regions for implementation include the Falkand/Maldive Islands, Palestine, North and South Korea, and Kurdistan. The author feels Kurdistan "presents the most pressing case," because none of the current countries in which the region is located (Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria and several countries of the former Soviet Union) are unwilling to grant independence and autonomy to a newly proposed Kurdistan. The countries may be willing, though, to recognize the Kurds as an internal autonomous group, as long as the UN is in charge of security (through the United Nations Board of Trustees). As a result of this step toward peace, the countries would most likely gain millions of dollars for regional development.