Defend or Disregard: Explaining Host State Responses to Transnational Repression

• In Event: Poster Session: Democracy & Autocracy

Abstract

Amid a spike in scholarly discussions of transnational repression, or the repression of emigrants and diaspora members outside of the territorial borders of the home state, a one common theme has emerged, that of insufficient consequences for offending states. Scholars, journalists, and human rights advocates have decried an impunity enjoyed by authoritarian regimes harassing and hunting their overseas critics, with a dearth of serious consequences imposed by the international community leading to the more routine practice of transnational repression. Despite these pessimistic assessments, no academic study has yet surveyed the response of host states to acts of transnational repression within their sovereign territory. Moreover, no academic study has yet attempted to explain variation in such host state responses: why some states impose costs on offending states, in such forms as sanctions or expulsions of diplomats, while others ignore or facilitate campaigns of anti-emigrant harassment and violence. This paper seeks to fill these gaps while leveraging new availability of data on instances of transnational repression. I will introduce newly compiled data from the Host-state Response to Repression Database (HRRD), an original dataset of host state responses to incidents of transnational repression. Using the HRRD data, I will identify factors correlated with firmer and laxer host state responses to transnational repression. I will investigate the degree to which components of the host and offender states’ bilateral relations, such as trade flow, alliances, and power asymmetries, impact host state response. I will explore whether more extreme acts of transnational repression, such as assassination, are more likely to prompt diplomatic repercussions. Beyond these factors, I also investigate to what degree popular backlash and liberal democratic governance impact such responses. For example, are liberal democracies less tolerant of transnational repression than other regimes? Does public outcry prompt host states to action? By conducting a quantitative analysis of a large-N cross-national dataset, I will introduce findings describing variation in host state response to transnational repression and characteristics correlated with higher costs imposed on offending states. These findings will not only advance scholarly understanding of transnational repression and its consequences but will also provide policy makers and human rights advocates evidence to inform their efforts—efforts to impose consequences on regimes who persecute their critics across international borders.

Author

• Connor Kopchick, University of Maryland, College Park