This paper will analyze the underlying factors and options relevant to emerging U.S. policy toward Kurdish issues today. The framework is one of competing/converging interests among divers regional parties: different Kurdish players, both political and military; Turks; Arabs; Iranians; and outside actors including Russia. Based on site visits, interviews, historical trends, media content analysis, survey research, and additional inputs, the paper will offer an original perspective demonstrating how the available options emerge from contrasting ground realities in particular Kurdish lands, and how the likely choices can be better predicted and understood. The overall theme will be to highlight comparisons across Kurdish situations in each major territory: Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran.