United Nations University Press is the publishing arm of the United Nations University. UNU Press publishes scholarly and policy-oriented books and periodicals on the issues facing the United Nations and its peoples and member states, with particular emphasis upon international, regional and trans-boundary policies. The United Nations University was established as a subsidiary organ of the United Nations by General Assembly resolution 2951 (XXVII) of 11 December 1972. It functions as an international community of scholars engaged in research, postgraduate training and the dissemination of knowledge to address the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations and its agencies. Its activities are devoted to advancing knowledge for human security and development and are focused on issues of peace and governance and of environment and sustainable development. The Uni- versity operates through a worldwide network of research and training centres and programmes, and its planning and coordinating centre in Tokyo. Diasporas in conflict Diasporas in conflict: Peace-makers or peace-wreckers? Edited by Hazel Smith and Paul Stares United Nations a University Press TOKYO u NEW YORK u PARIS 6 United Nations University, 2007 The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not nec- essarily reflect the views of the United Nations University. United Nations University Press United Nations University, 53-70, Jingumae 5-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8925, Japan Tel: þ81-3-3499-2811 Fax: þ81-3-3406-7345 E-mail: [email protected] general enquiries: [email protected] http://www.unu.edu United Nations University Office at the United Nations, New York 2 United Nations Plaza, Room DC2-2062, New York, NY 10017, USA Tel: þ1-212-963-6387 Fax: þ1-212-371-9454 E-mail: [email protected] United Nations University Press is the publishing division of the United Nations University. Cover design by Mea Rhee Printed in Hong Kong ISBN 978-92-808-1140-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Diasporas in conflict : peace-makers or peace-wreckers? / edited by Hazel Smith and Paul Stares. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-9280811407 (pbk.) 1. Emigration and immigration—Political aspects—Case studies. 2. Immigrants—Political activity—Case studies. 3. Conflict management— Case studies. 4. World politics—Case studies. I. Smith, Hazel, 1954– II. Stares, Paul B. JV6255.D53 2007 304.8—dc22 2007002607 Contents Listoffiguresandtables.............................................. vii Preface................................................................. viii Listofcontributors.................................................... x Part I: The analytical and conceptual framework ................... 1 1 Diasporas in international conflict . ............................. 3 Hazel Smith 2 A neglected relationship: Diasporas and conflict resolution . 17 Jacob Bercovitch 3 Gender, diasporas and post–Cold War conflict . 39 Nadje S. Al-Ali Part II: The case studies .............................................. 63 4 The Jewish Diaspora and the Arab–Palestinian–Israeli conflict . ............................. 65 Gabriel Sheffer 5 ThePalestiniandiaspora.......................................... 90 Mohammed A. Bamyeh vi CONTENTS 6 The Armenian diaspora and the Karabagh conflict since 1988 . 106 Khachig To¨lo¨lyan 7 A reluctantdiaspora?ThecaseofColombia.................... 129 Virginia M. Bouvier 8 TheCubandiaspora .............................................. 153 Jean Grugel and Henry Kippin 9 The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora: Sustaining conflict and pushingforpeace ................................................. 172 C. Christine Fair 10 KurdishinterventionsintheIraqwar............................ 196 Denise Natali 11 The mobilized Croatian diaspora: Its role in homeland politics andwar............................................................ 218 Zlatko Skrbisˇ 12 African diasporas and post-conflict reconstruction: An Eritreancasestudy................................................ 239 Khalid Koser 13 Political remittance: Cambodian diasporas in conflict and post conflict ............................................................. 253 Khatharya Um Bibliography .......................................................... 280 Index .................................................................. 300 Figures and tables Figure 2.1 Conflict phases and approaches to conflict management . 27 Tables 2.1 The influences of a diaspora in different phases of a conflict . ........................................................ 29 12.1 Categorization of individual and community activities by typeandgeographicalfocus ................................... 244 12.2 Factors increasing individual capabilities to contribute to reconstruction in the home country . ......................... 249 vii Preface Diasporas matter in international conflict. That is the premise of this book and the basis upon which the research project that resulted in this book was conceived. The work was jointly undertaken by the United Nations University and the United States Institute of Peace after both institutions had independently begun to identify this under-studied topic as a potentially fruitful area of empirical and policy-relevant research. Our contributors, all distinguished scholars of diasporas, were each asked, not to produce new research on the diaspora per se, but to use their knowledge to think about diaspora intervention in international conflict. Our aim was to use case-study comparison to offer some tenta- tive conclusions about the role, function and potential of diasporas in future conflicts. Contributors were therefore asked to write a case study that considered how a specific diaspora intervened in a specific interna- tional conflict. Crudely speaking, the question asked of our contributors was: ‘‘Was the particular diaspora you studied a peace-wrecker or a peace-maker?’’ The majority of the contributors met, most for the first time, in a re- search workshop in Macau in September 2004, to discuss their draft chap- ters. After a two-day vigorous exchange of views, contributors returned home to re-write their chapters. The outcome is this book, which argues that diasporas can be both peace-wreckers and peace-makers, sometimes at one and the same time. The question for policy-makers is, then, how to channel the positive contributions of diasporas so as to support conflict viii PREFACE ix resolution and also how to mitigate the impact of negative interventions by diasporas in conflict. We would like to thank all at United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo and Macau and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington, DC, who contributed to the project. We are particularly grateful to Yoshie Sawada in Tokyo and to Elise Murphy at USIP who between them organized the vast majority of the administrative work without which this book would not have been possible. We also thank our contributors, who gave their time, energy and intellectual efforts to make this volume possible. Hazel Smith and Paul Stares List of contributors Nadje S. Al-Ali is Senior Lecturer in many scholarly articles and his Social Anthropology at the Institute books include The Ends of of Arab & Islamic Studies at the Globalization (University of University of Exeter, UK. She is Minnesota Press, 2000), The Social specialized in gendered aspects of Origins of Islam (University of transnational migration and Minnesota Press, 1999), and the diaspora mobilization. Her edited special issue Palestine publications include Secularism, America (South Atlantic Quarterly, Gender and the State in the Middle 2003). East (Cambridge University Press, 2000) and, as editor, New Jacob Bercovitch is Professor of Approaches to Migration International Relations at the (Routledge, 2002). University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. His Mohammed A. Bamyeh is currently current research interests include the Hubert Humphrey Professor of conflict resolution and international International Studies at Macalester mediation. He is the author and CollegeinMinnesota,USA.Heisa editor of 10 books and numerous former SSRC-MacArthur Fellow in scientific papers, which have International Peace and Security, appeared in all the main journals. and has previously taught at Georgetown University, New York Virginia M. Bouvier is Senior Program University, SUNY-Buffalo, and the Officer at the United States Institute University of Massachusetts, USA. of Peace, Washington, DC, USA. He received his PhD in sociology She is editor of The Globalization of from the University of Wisconsin- U.S.-Latin American Relations Madisonin1990.Hehaswritten (Praeger Publishers, 2002), was x CONTRIBUTORS xi previously on the faculty at the Studies, Exeter University, UK. She University of Maryland, USA, and is currently teaching at the holds her PhD in Latin American Department of Politics, University Studies from the University of of Kurdistan, Arbil, Kurdistan California at Berkeley, USA. Region of Iraq, and is a fellowship recipient of the American Academic C. Christine Fair is Senior Research Research Institute in Iraq (TAARI). Associate at the United States Natali is the author of numerous Institute of Peace, Washington, DC, publications on Kurdish nationalism USA, specializing in South Asian and politics, including The Kurds political and military affairs. Prior to and the State: Evolving National joining USIP, she was a political Identity in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran scientistatRAND.FairhasanMA