Construction of Party Identity by the Islamic Dawa Party in Iraq after 2003

Abstract Islamist parties, like many other parties, face recurrent changes. A significant manifestation of such change is the transition from Islamism to post-Islamism, although the underlying drivers of this transition vary across cases. This paper examines ideological change within the Islamist Dawa Party in Iraq following 2003. The paper argues that two environmental shifts—the inclusive character of the post-2003 constitutional order and the rising prominence of the marjaʿiyya—enabled the party to cultivate a national identity while retaining its core Islamist ideology. Therefore, the Dawa’s transformation is better understood as an adaptive process situated within Islamism rather than a movement towards post-Islamism. Theoretically, the analysis draws on party-change theory to illuminate how an Islamist party may modify its strategic repertoire while preserving its fundamental ideological objectives.