UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE The Arab Spring Abroad: Mobilization among Syrian, Libyan, and Yemeni Diasporas in the U.S. and Great Britain DISSERTATION Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Sociology by Dana M. Moss Dissertation Committee: Distinguished Professor David A. Snow, Chair Chancellor’s Professor Charles Ragin Professor Judith Stepan-Norris Professor David S. Meyer Associate Professor Yang Su 2016 © 2016 Dana M. Moss DEDICATION To my husband William Picard, an exceptional partner and a true activist; and to my wonderfully supportive and loving parents, Nancy Watts and John Moss. Thank you for everything, always. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ACRONYMS iv LIST OF FIGURES v LIST OF TABLES vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii CURRICULUM VITAE viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION xiv INTRODUCTION 1 PART I: THE DYNAMICS OF DIASPORA MOVEMENT EMERGENCE CHAPTER 1: Diaspora Activism before the Arab Spring 30 CHAPTER 2: The Resurgence and Emergence of Transnational Diaspora Mobilization during the Arab Spring 70 PART II: THE ROLES OF THE DIASPORAS IN THE REVOLUTIONS 126 CHAPTER 3: The Libyan Case 132 CHAPTER 4: The Syrian Case 169 CHAPTER 5: The Yemeni Case 219 PART III: SHORT-TERM OUTCOMES OF THE ARAB SPRING CHAPTER 6: The Effects of Episodic Transnational Mobilization on Diaspora Politics 247 CHAPTER 7: Conclusion and Implications 270 REFERENCES 283 ENDNOTES 292 iii LIST OF ACRONYMS FSA Free Syria Army ISIS The Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, or Daesh NFSL National Front for the Salvation of Libya PDRY The People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen PYD Democratic Union Party (a Syrian-Kurdish faction) SAC Syrian American Council SNC Syrian National Council YAR Yemen Arab Republic YCA Yemen Community Association YRDF Yemen Relief and Development Foundation iv LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 0.1: A Multi-Level Relational Model of Diaspora Mobilization 12 v LIST OF TABLES Page Table 0.1: Variation in Diaspora Mobilization before and during the Arab Spring 3 Table 0.2: Interviewees’ Characteristics 23 Table 0.3: Cities/Regions Visited during Fieldwork for Observations and Interviews 26 Table 1.1: Social Movement Groups Reported by Interviewees 32 Table 1.2: Typology of Transnational Repression 50 Table II.1: Typology of Roles Played by Diaspora Movements 130 Table II.2: Determinants of the Diasporas’ Roles in the Revolutions 131 Table 3.1: Libyan Groups and Organizations Formed or Converted to the Revolution and Humanitarian Causes during the Arab Spring 135 Table 4.1: Syrian Groups and Organizations Formed or Converted to the Revolution and Humanitarian Causes during the Arab Spring 175 Table 5.1: Yemeni Groups and Organizations Formed or Converted to the Revolution and Humanitarian Causes during the Arab Spring 222 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was made possible by the activists and organizers who spent precious hours speaking with me about their experiences—thank you—and by funding from the National Science Foundation’s Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (2014, #1433642), the American Institute for Yemeni Studies’ Pre-Dissertation Fellowship (2012), the Kugelman Citizen Peacebuilding Research Fellowship (2011, 2013, 2015), the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies’ Research Award (2014), and summer funding from the Center for the Study of Democracy and the Department of Sociology at UCI. Several individuals went out of their way to facilitate my fieldwork, often hosting me in their homes, sharing meals, and helping me to find my way across Britain and around Tripoli, Libya. Special thanks is due (in no particular order) to Rabyaah Althaibani, Ma’moon (Mazen) Obaid, Safa Mubgar and her family, Adel Aulaqi, Shaima Saif, the Al-Hakimi family, the Mashjari family, Illham Ali, Khaled Ahmed, Ayat Mneina, Abdallah Omeish, Rihab Elhaj, Walid Raghei, and Gihan Badi for their gracious assistance and overwhelming hospitality. I am indebted to the many scholars who have commented on this work in part and in full, including my dissertation committee chair David Snow—an exceptional mentor—and committee members Yang Su, Judy Stepan-Norris, David Meyer, and Charles Ragin. I have also benefitted from the thoughtful insights of Sidney Tarrow, Alejandro Portes, John McCarthy, and Ali Chaudhary. I am especially grateful to all of the members of UCI’s Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, and especially Larry and Dulcie Kugelman, for their exemplary enthusiasm for graduate student research at UCI. I also appreciate the tremendous support of the faculty and staff in the Department of Sociology, including past and present chairs David Frank and Matt Huffman, and Graduate Directors Ann Hironaka, Katie Bolzendahl, Nina Bandelj, Evan Schofer, and Francesca Polletta. John Sommerhauser, Director of Graduate Affairs in the School of Social Sciences, provided invaluable assistance at every turn. Last but not least, this work would not have been possible without the support of my family, including Will Picard, who cheered me on even as I abandoned him each summer to do fieldwork (shukran habibi), Nancy Watts, John Moss, Linda and Larry Broun, and Kate and Don Picard. I know that Linda Broun, who passed away in 2014, would have liked to have seen this work finished very much. She would have called me up to sing in her wonderfully dry-witted way, “now you can get a haircut, and get a real job! vii CURRICULUM VITAE EDUCATION Ph.D. Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, 2016 Dissertation: “The Arab Spring Abroad: Mobilization among Syrian, Libyan, and Yemeni Diasporas in the US and Great Britain.” Committee: David A. Snow (Chair), Charles C. Ragin, David S. Meyer, Judith Stepan- Norris, and Yang Su M.A. Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, 2012 M.A. Interdisciplinary Program in Liberal Studies, emphasis on Middle Eastern Studies, Villanova University, 2009 B.A. Department of Sociology and Writing, Loyola University in Maryland, 2004 Summa cum laude, Honors program, Phi Beta Kappa AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION Social movements, political sociology, and state repression; Transnationalism, diasporas, and immigrant politics; Arab populations and the Middle East and North Africa; Comparative and qualitative methods. PUBLICATIONS Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles TBD Moss, Dana M. “Transnational Repression, Diaspora Mobilization, and the Case of the Arab Spring,” Social Problems, forthcoming. 2016 Moss, Dana M. “Diaspora Mobilization for Western Military Intervention during the Arab Spring,” Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, forthcoming. 2014 Snow, David A. and Dana M. Moss. “Protest on the Fly: Toward a Theory of Spontaneity in the Dynamics of Protest and Social Movements.” American Sociological Review 79(6): 1122-1143. 2014 “Repression, Response, and Contained Escalation under ‘Liberalized’ Authoritarianism in Jordan.” Mobilization: An International Quarterly 19(3): 489-514. viii 2010 Eckstein, Rick, Dana M. Moss and Kevin J. Delaney. “Sports Sociology’s Still Untapped Potential.” Sociological Forum 25(3): 500-518. Chapters in Edited Volumes 2016 Moss, Dana M. and David A. Snow. “Theorizing Social Movements.” Handbook of Contemporary Sociological Theory. Springer, in press. 2013 Moss, Dana M. “The Arab Spring.” Pp. 118-125 in The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements. Edited by David A. Snow, Donatella Della Porta, Bert Klandermans, and Doug McAdam. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell Publishing. 2013 Moss, Dana M. “Islamic Women’s Movements.” Pp. 645-648 in The Wiley- Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements. Edited by David A. Snow, Donatella Della Porta, Bert Klandermans, and Doug McAdam. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell Publishing. Articles under Review 2016 Frank, David John and Dana M. Moss. “The Social Foundations of Law: Cross- National Variations in the Criminal Regulation of Sex, 1965 to 2005,” Social Forces, revise and resubmit. 2016 Moss, Dana M. “The Ties That Bind: Internet Communication Technologies, Networked Authoritarianism, and ‘Voice’ in the Syrian Diaspora,” Globalizations (special issue), under review. Other Publications 2014 Moss, Dana M. “How Jordan’s Protest Movement Mattered.” The Monkey Cage Blog, The Washington Post, October 27. 2011 Moss, Dana M. and William E. Picard. “Saleh or Chaos? Rebalancing the Equation in Yemen.” Muftah.org, April 21. 2009 Moss, Dana M. “Thailand’s Unknown War: A Study of Malay-Muslim Separatism, Political Opportunities and the Dynamics of Violent Resistance.” CONCEPT: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Graduate Studies of Villanova University 32(1): 3-23. Articles and Chapters in Preparation Chen, Xi and Dana M. Moss. “Social Movements and Authoritarian Regimes.” The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, 2nd ed., edited by David Snow, Sarah Soule, Hanspeter Kriesi, and Holly McCammon (invited). ix Moss, Dana M. and David A. Snow. “Distant Authority Structures and the Attribution of Blame: Activists vs. Superpowers.” Chaudhary, Ali R. and Dana M. Moss. “Towards a Theory of Immigrant Transnational Political Action.” FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS External Sources: 2014 National Science Foundation’s Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant ($11,322) 2012 American Institute for Yemeni Studies Pre-Dissertation Fellowship ($7000) 2011 Critical Language Scholarship for Arabic, Council of American Overseas Research Centers ($10,000) 2011 Kathryn Davis Fellowship, Middlebury College’s Language Institute ($9910, declined) University of California: 2016 Lauds & Laurels Outstanding Graduate Student of