It may not be an exaggeration to state that Erbil is rising as an intellectual outpost in the volatile Middle East. The capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq, apart from its increased political importance, corroborates this emerging picture of the Kurds as the new constant in a developing regional equation.

While the Islamic State (IS) is only an hour away, political and intellectual life in Erbil is as vibrant as can be. The newly founded Kurdish think tank Middle East Research Institute (MERI) last week organized in Erbil a forum that brought top Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish authorities — including President Fouad Massoum — from Baghdad to mingle with their Kurdish counterparts in Erbil and Suleimaniyah, along with international experts and diplomats. The forum focused on Iraqi reconciliation — Kurds with Arabs and Shiites with Sunnis — and, inevitably, on how to deal with the IS threat.

Everybody, from top officials to ordinary citizens, concedes that, had the American air operation not come to their rescue two months ago, Erbil would have fallen to the advancing IS hordes.

Fouad Hussein, the chief of staff of KRG President Massoud Barzani, told me that, on the fateful night before President Barack Obama announced air operations to halt IS’ advance toward Erbil, he did not sleep a minute, as he was making phone calls to every American official he could reach, asking for help.