Chapter 3 presents the political contexts of the United Kingdom (UK) and Sweden ahead of the Iraq war, demonstrating how the foreign policies of each host country affected diasporic state-building. While the UK’s involvement in the intervention opened the doors for the diaspora to join in the post-2003 governance and institution building of Iraq, Sweden’s anti-war stance and lack of involvement diverted mobilisation largely towards civil society building and transporting the tradition of democracy from the bottom-up. The chapter introduces the Iraqi opposition groups who mobilised and collaborated with the State Department and Central Intelligence Agency in the United States, and Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the UK. It explores the divergences between the groups and how they shaped the coalition’s thinking ahead of the intervention, as well as laying the foundations of the post-2003 state. It also investigates the diasporic groups and actors in Sweden and how they mobilised through civil society. Sweden’s anti-war movement and global protests against the Iraq War galvanised a very different locus of political activism and mobilisation towards preventing the war from taking place and curbing Sweden’s role in the intervention. It thus diverted involvement towards supporting Iraq’s civil society and its democratisation process.

Chapter 5 explores bottom-up diasporic state-building through the case study of the Swedish diaspora, which largely worked outside the structures of the state through civil society and grass-roots mobilisation. It firstly contextualises diasporic activity within Sweden’s foreign policy stance towards Iraq and how this shaped and limited mobilisation in 2003. The chapter later demonstrates how the Swedish diaspora organisations were able to influence Swedish policymakers and institute diaspora co-development projects in Iraq through Sweden’s development agency and Sweden’s democratic tradition. It also uncovers the challenges these endeavours faced in the context of conflict and insecurity in Iraq. In later years, the diaspora was able to initiate other initiatives such as the Diaspora Initiative for National Reconciliation and Dialogue, which attempted to reconcile Iraq’s fractious politics by bringing together opposing political factions in Iraq to talk and find common ground. Finally, the chapter reflects on how Iraq’s fragmented state-building has empowered majorities and disempowered minorities both in Iraq and in the diaspora, drawing attention to the way power is also distributed transnationally and how this has altered connections and mobilisation towards Iraq.