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 4 presents how diaspora elites and parties mobilised following the 2003 intervention and occupation of Iraq through top-down state-building. It traces how they manoeuvred to take advantage of the United States-led coalition and insert themselves in the corridors of power. It charts their involvement throughout Iraq’s political process from the Iraqi Governing Council to the transitional Administrative Law, Iraq’s first democratic elections in 2005, and beyond. It emphasises their transnational recruitment and role in building an ethno-sectarian governance system that would indelibly cast the die for the modern state of Iraq and its future politics. This chapter also discusses how elite diasporas also worked outside the structures of power, and the challenges of confronting an ethno-sectarian system in Iraq. It also highlights how diaspora initiatives in certain sectors were able to influence state practices by working transnationally through professional associations and transnational networks. Finally, it explores the agency of Iraq’s non-Muslim minorities and their transnational mobilisations towards the country, as they’ve attempted to protect their communities and heritage in Iraq and maintain their links to the country, albeit in limited ways.