How Valuable the Future Kurdistan State Passport Will be? An exploratory study on the opinion of a sample of foreign academicians, researchers, and politicians

Abstract

This study aims to predict the Kurdistan state passport power rank. The study idea began in July 2017, and it became a very important topic especially when the first Kurdistan region independence referendum held on the 25th of September 2017. The main question is “will the power of the Kurdistan state passport in the future exceed the current Iraqi passport power?”. A structured questionnaire distributed to foreign academician who works in Kurdistan academic institutions, universities and who visited the region for academic, research and diplomatic purpose, 115 questionnaires distributed online through the Google forums, only 85 responded accurately. Most of the response ranked the future Kurdistan passport within the best 75 passports among 200 passports for countries and regions according to the Henley and Partners methodology and the Nomad Passport Index measurements for best passports.