Maria Fantappie, of the Carnegie Middle East Center, in a piece for the Los Angeles Times' Babylon & Beyond blog, writes that the wave of protests across the Arab world is also having an effect in Iraqi Kurdistan.  Although protests have erupted in the Arab areas of Iraq over a variety of issues, Fantappie states that the Kurdish protests have focused on popular youth discontent with the traditional Kurdish leadership ...

Sean Kane, writing at Foreign Policy, examines the overlooked tensions that have been simmering in Iraq since waves of popular unrest have swept across the Middle East.  Recently, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) deployed units of the Peshmerga, the Kurdish regional security forces, south of Kirkuk following popular protests there in February.  The KRG is worried about anti-Kurdish sentiments in the ethnically diverse city and has reportedly deployed, according to ...