Three discourses on diasporas and peacebuilding

Abstract

Over the past decade academics and policymakers have increasingly recognised the growing importance of diasporas. While diasporas have been variously defined, an important common element is continued identity with the ‘home’ country even when many years have been spent in the ‘host’ country (Lyons, 2004b: 3). Some may even not have visited their ‘home country’ but offer valuable political support. For example, even though many of the Jewish diaspora in the United States have never been to Israel, let alone been born there, they nevertheless mobilise support for the Jewish ‘homeland’ (Mearsheimer and Walt, 2006). For the academic community, diasporas thus offer a challenge to the traditional ‘inside/outside’ conception of social life whereby socio-political activities are defined as either purely ‘domestic’ or purely ‘international’ (Al-Ali and Koser, 2002). Diasporas are, at one and the same time, both and neither. As suggested by Shain (2002), diasporas form a distinct ‘third level’ between interstate and domestic politics — a type of transnational actor that is becoming increasingly important due to the globalisation of markets, politics and culture. How, through what mechanisms and with what impact diasporas express themselves as ‘transnational actors’, therefore, is currently a matter of intense research. While there is an expanding literature in this area, there has been less research on diasporas in the field of conflict and peace studies. Here research has tended to emphasise the role of diasporas as ‘peace-wreckers’, though work has emerged emphasising the role of diasporas as ‘peace-makers’ (Smith and Stares, 2007).