Selling Democracy During the Second British Occupation of Iraq,1941–5

Abstract

Britain initiated an extensive pro-democracy propaganda campaign during its wartime occupation of Iraq from 1941–5. Organizations such as the Brotherhood of Freedom aimed to instil civic pride in disaffected Iraqi youth, and the propaganda message was accompanied by a call for internal political reform as a means of protecting against growing communist influence. Allied declarations such as the Atlantic Charter played a key role in this campaign designed to win Iraqi support for the war effort, but the publicity drive also opened up new avenues for protest. The war saw the revival of leftist groups that harnessed this rhetoric to their call for British evacuation. The confluence of Allied democracy propaganda, Iraqi reformist movements, and widespread demands for British withdrawal and political reform served as a catalyst for postwar political change. Yet the reality of the occupation, in particular Britain’s bolstering of the old regime in the interest of wartime stability, ultimately hampered the development of a viable democratic system.