MENA Diasporas, Authoritarianism and Activism in Exile (Pre-Recorded)

Session Submission Type: In-Person Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel brings together four papers that examine how diasporas mobilize against or in support of their home governments, with a focus on communities from the Middle East and North Africa. Drawing on a variety of primary sources and employing different methodologies, the papers examine how individuals, groups and communities organize abroad, and how home governments respond to such mobilization and engage with diaspora populations. In order to better understand the dynamics and consequences of diasporic mobilization against home governments, the panel considers how Egyptian activists in exile used online channels to call for protests in the home country, how Egyptian and Tunisian Islamist opposition groups reconstituted and mobilized their constituents abroad, and how the Syrian diaspora mobilizes for prospective transitional justice. Yet not all diasporic mobilization challenges home governments, and the panel also explores how competitive authoritarian regimes mobilize their diasporas as “brand ambassadors” in order to create a positive international reputation, garner legitimacy, and appeal to their local constituencies. Taken together, the papers shed light on both the dynamics of diasporic mobilization and of extraterritorial authoritarianism, bridging the literatures on migration, authoritarianism, social movements, transitional justice and public diplomacy.

Sub Unit

• Division 57: Middle East and North African Politics

Cosponsor

• Division 52: Migration & Citizenship

Individual Presentations

• Online Mobilization and Repression in Egypt - Elizabeth R. Nugent, Yale University; Alexandra Arons Siegel, University of Coloardo Boulder

• Islamist Activism in Exile - Ioana Emy Matesan, Wesleyan University

• Diaspora Mobilization for Transitional Justice in the Absence of Transition - Eric Wiebelhaus-Brahm, University of Arkansas, Little Rock; Espen Stokke, University of Bergen

• Competitive Authoritarian Regimes and Transnational Politics of Nation-Branding - Bahar Baser, Durham University; Gözde Böcü, University of Toronto

Chair

• Gerasimos Tsourapas University of Glasgow

Discussant

• Gerasimos Tsourapas University of Glasgow