Conflict-Generated: Non-State Actors and South Sudanese in the United States

• In Event: Post-Conflict Politics in Africa

Abstract

Research has shown that diasporas, particularly those generated through processes of violence and conflict, are likely to be engaged with politics of the country of origin, either in support or in opposition of various within-state actors. While conflict-generated diasporas may have high self-mobilizability due to their experience of conflict, they can and are often mobilized by other political actors. Traditionally, the state is the mobilizer. Increasingly, however, other actors are also engaged in mobilization: non-state groups with access to the means of violence in a transnationalized world. This study speaks to these dynamics of conflict and investigates the mobilization of conflict-generated diasporas by non-state actors. In particular, it examines the South Sudanese diaspora in the United States and their mobilization by the Sudan People Liberation Movement in Opposition, a group which split from the SPLM in Government in South Sudan. Through a survey conducted among South Sudanese in Nebraska in September 2018, this study examines the level of political engagement of the diaspora, their mobilization and the forms it takes. It assesses the level of political engagement of diasporas with the politics of the country of origin and constructs a diaspora political communication network using Social Network Analysis.

Author

• Sandra Tombe, George Mason University