When the Ukrainians became independent at the end of 1991, the Kurds succeeded to the title of largest nation on earth without its own independent state. This dubious distinction is not due to any dearth of academic attention since in recent years, there has been an explosion of scholarly books and articles regarding the Kurds. David Romano's new publication is clearly one of the best. The author takes the theoretical analysis of Kurdish ethnic resurgence to a new, higher level, while also placing it in the larger context of ethnic nationalist resurgences throughout the world. No other recent analysis of the Kurds has done this.

In a heuristic introductory chapter, Romano argues that the Kurdish national movement can be analyzed usefully in terms of three approaches or frameworks: opportunity structures, resource mobilization and rational choice, and cultural framing. “The concept of opportunity structures lends itself well to explaining the emergence … of insurgent social movements” (p. 19). The resource-mobilization level of analysis “is particularly well suited to explaining how social movements emerge and mobilize to pursue their goals” (p. 21), while cultural framing helps “answer the questions of why people and social movements seek the goals that they do, as well as how they go about conducting the struggle” (p. 22). Romano notes that these “three modes of analysis … all interact dynamically” (p. 170), and he does an admirable job of presenting his material through these three different lenses.

The author spends the bulk of his analysis on the Kurdish movements in Turkey because this is where approximately half the Kurds in the world live. Furthermore, he argues that “Turkey is a semi-democracy which has tried most actively to assimilate its Kurds, making it a very interesting case for the study of ethnic nationalist movements in the developing world” (p. 24). His final chapters then bring in comparisons with the Kurdish national movements in Iraq and Iran. The Kurdish situation in Syria is omitted because of its smaller Kurdish population and the requirements of space.

Romano argues that political opportunity structures are important determinants in explaining the development of the Kurdish nationalist movement in Turkey: “The closed nature of the political system in Turkey (closed vis-à-vis Kurdish political demands) encouraged the emergence of radical Kurdish movements acting from outside the state” (p. 52). Somewhat problematically, however, the author points out that these opportunities were considerably less favorable for the Kurds when the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) launched its guerrilla war in the 1980s than in the 1920s because the Turkish state was much weaker in the 1920s. So how to explain the present-day PKK's greater success, compared to that of the short-lived Sheik Said rebellion in 1925?

Romano thus maintains that resource mobilization (RM) and rational choice (RC) approaches also give one a valuable additional understanding of how the Kurdish national movement built itself up in the 1980s, especially given its genesis with so few resources: “The PKK, with only a few hundred cadres, was able to increase the Kurdish population's sympathy and support by coordinating actions that mattered to the local people, most important of which was opposition to the landlords and exploitative tribal chiefs” (p. 74).

Finally, cultural framing or “shared understandings of the world and of themselves that legitimate and motivate collective action” (p. 21), and the cultural tool kit or “attitudes prevalent within a population” (ibid.), help explain why and how people pursue certain goals. When the PKK became aware that its Marxist ideology did not particularly appeal to its Kurdish target, it began “to stress its Kurdish nationalist and human rights grievance frames more than its socialist side” (p. 142). In addition, telecommunications and the Internet gave the PKK additional outlets: “By establishing MED-TV, a Kurdish satellite station based in London and Belgium, the Kurds became the world's first stateless ‘television nation’” (p. 153).

Romano finishes his study with single chapters dealing with the Iraqi Kurds, the Iranian Kurds, and a thoughtful conclusion. Here, he argues that “had a lack of available traditional elite allies back in the 1950s forced the Iraqi Kurdish nationalist movement to develop a more progressive program that mobilized the peasantry and urban classes [as the PKK did in Turkey], the challenge to Baghdad might have been much stronger” (p. 195). He further notes, in regards to the U.S.-enforced no-fly zone over northern Iraq after 1991, that “the events that led to the creation of the Iraqi Kurdish safe haven are indicative of the increasing importance of international influences as a structural opportunity variable” (p. 211). As for the Kurdish situation in Iran, “what stands out the most … is the degree to which Iranian Kurds have relied on the appearance of auspicious opportunities, even more so than Turkish and Iraqi Kurds” (p. 244). Much more so than in Turkey or Iraq, “Iranian Kurdish challenges only emerged in significant form at times when the Iranian state was in dire straits” (ibid.).

In his conclusion, Romano usefully suggests two further themes: 1) “Kurdish women may have the ability to inject a necessary spirit of peaceful accommodation and cooperation amongst Kurdish nationalists and elites, if they are better integrated into the structures of political power in Kurdish society” (p. 252). 2) “The demands of Kurdish and other minority groups for national and religious rights are actually a possible source of democratization for Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, since freedoms granted to one group presumably extend to every member of society” (pp. 254–55). This second suggestion leads into the possible benefits of future Turkish membership in the European Union.

Given Romano's emphasis on the Kurdish national movement in Turkey, his book's front cover illustration of the cemetery at and monument to the victims of Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons attack on Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan is possibly misplaced. With the additional minor exception of a few historical quibbles, Romano clearly has succeeded in applying sophisticated social movement theories to the Kurdish nationalist movement. Indeed, his bibliography illustrates this by usefully integrating recent studies of the Kurds with general theoretical analyses of social movement theories. His study also includes a list of acronyms and abbreviations, a map, and an index. Although difficult reading at times, this analysis helps to advance Kurdish studies and will amply reward those who peruse it closely.