Authoritarianism beyond Borders: The Iraqi Ba‘th Party as a Transnational Actor

A great deal has been written about authoritarianism in Ba‘thist Iraq as a domestic phenomenon. However, the Iraqi Ba‘th archives reveal that migration out of Iraq during Saddam Husayn’s presidency (1979–2003) pushed the regime to extend its authoritarianism to cover the growing Iraqi diaspora. This article describes the development of the resulting transnational authoritarian system and investigates its implications for Iraqi history as well as international politics.