Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, Iraq has been setting the foundations for its new state, including the institutionalization of a new set of security and intelligence services. Over the past eight years, Iraq has been following the mold of most nascent intelligence communities, slowly taking into account its geopolitical situation — as well as bureaucratic, institutional and personal battles — to create operational, analytical and decision-making protocols that will remain relatively constant even as the country's political leadership changes. Since the beginnings of modern-day Iraq after World War I, its geopolitical imperatives have changed little, and the roots of these modern intelligence services can thus be found in those of previous governments. Iraq's First Intelligence Services Iraq's first intelligence agency, the General Security Service (GSS), was created in 1921 in what was then the British Mandate of Mesopotamia.