Overview

Why do conflict-generated diasporas mobilize in contentious and non-contentious ways or use mixed strategies? This book develops a theory of socio-spatial positionality and its implications for the individual agency of diaspora entrepreneurs. A novel typology features four types of diaspora entrepreneursDLBroker, Local, Distant, and ReservedDLdepending on the relative strength of their socio-spatial linkages to host-land, original homeland, and other global locations. A two-level typological theory captures nine causal pathways unravelling how diaspora entrepreneurs operate in transnational social fields and interact with host-land foreign policies, homeland governments, parties, non-state actors, critical events, and limited global influences. Non-contention often occurs when diaspora entrepreneurs act autonomously and when host-state foreign policies converge with their goals. Dual-pronged contention is common under the influence of homeland governments, non-state actors, and political parties. The most contention occurs in response to violent events in the original homeland or adjacent to it fragile states. The book is informed by 300 interviews among the Albanian, Armenian, and Palestinian diasporas connected to de facto states, Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Palestine respectively. Interviews were conducted in the UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Brussels in Belgium, as well as Kosovo and Armenia in the European neighbourhood.

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9780198848622

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Diasporas are growing in size and influence and Maria Koinova has produced a definitive study of their political mobilization. Focusing on what she calls 'diaspora entrepreneurs', she effectively challenges statist theories of mobilization. She identifies four types of entrepreneurs, and distinctive contexts in which they operate. This generates nine pathways of mobilization that are compellingly documented in case studies. Conceptually sophisticated and empirically rich, this book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of diasporas but also to comparative politics more generally. * Richard New Lebow, Professor of International Political Theory, War Studies, King's College London * This book is essential reading for understanding why diasporas from contested states mobilize in such different ways. Koinova's typology at once highlights individuals' agency and explains how that agency is shaped by socio-political context. The pathways she identifies confirm the interconnectedness of today's global politics, suggesting an important shift in how we should understand and investigate international relations. * Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff, Professor of Public Administration and International Affairs, George Washington University * Koinova performs the tour de force of combining the literature on social movements, diaspora entrepreneurs, and the policy decisions of states, IGOs, NGOs, and engagement by non-state actors. Not only a theoretically sophisticated framework, it also rests on massive empirical analysis in host states in Western Europe as well as home states in the European neighbourhood. A very impressive combination of theoretical and empirical rigour. * Gary Goertz, Professor of Political Science and Peace Studies, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame * Diasporic entrepreneurs and individual actors do more than send remittances home. As Maria Koinova shows in her deft, timely, and innovative study, they intercede importantly and dangerously in the political and social battles of their homelands. Everyone who cares about the critical impact of diasporic actors on bodies politic across the globe can now turn to this timely, methodologically sophisticated book for meaningful and policy shaping insights. * Robert I. Rotberg, President Emeritus of the World Peace Foundation and Founding Director of Harvard Kennedy School's Programme on Intrastate Conflict * Koinova provides a fresh, innovative, and compelling perspective into the mobilization of conflict-generated diasporas. Built on a bedrock of impressive empirical evidence focused on diasporas from Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Palestine, Koinova moves beyond a statist paradigm in diaspora studies to show how four types of diaspora-generated entrepreneurs Broker, Local, Distant, and Reserved are powerfully shaped by the contexts in which they operate to channel their homeland-oriented goals in transnational social fields. * Andrew Geddes, Chair in Migration Studies and Director, Migration Policy Centre, European University Institute *

Author Information

Maria Koinova is Professor in International Relations at the University of Warwick in the UK. She is the author of Ethnonationalist Conflict in Postcommunist States (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), and she has published in numerous leading journals such as the European Journal of International Relations,International Studies Review, and Foreign Policy Analysis.

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