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Abstract
This article looks at the dynamics of Diaspora groups as a possible catalyst for peace-building within violent segmented societies. With the help of two case studies, Irish-America's role in Northern Ireland and Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora's role in Sri Lanka, it locates the variable impacts of Diaspora involvement in violent conflicts within their homelands. Despite their unique histories and individual complexity, both of these cases illustrate that Diasporas have a significant role to play in peace-building, are diverse rather than homogenous communities, and that they represent an important and often underutilized resource to bring negotiated settlement to violent conflicts.
This article was originally prepared as a paper for the ISA's 49th Annual Convention in San Francisco, 26–29 March 2008.
Notes
1. Eva Østergaard-Nielsen, “Diasporas and Conflict Resolution—Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution?” (Copenhagen: DIIS Brief, March 2006).
2. Robin Cohen, “Global Diasporas.” An Introduction (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997).
3. R. Brubaker, “The ‘Diaspora’ Diaspora,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 28(1) (2005), pp. 1–19.
4. Cohen, “Global Diasporas.”
5. Benedict Anderson, “The New World Disorder,” New Left Review (1992) 193, p. 13.
6. Terence Lyons, “Diasporas and Transnational Politics in Ethiopia,” in A. Swain, ed., Diasporas Armed Conflicts and Peacebuilding in Their Homelands (Uppsala University, Department of Peace and Conflict Research Report No. 79, 2007), p. 32.
7. M. Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001); M. Duffield, Global Governance and the New Wars: The Merging of Development and Security (London: Zed Books, 2001); M. Duffield, “War as a Network Enterprise: The New Security Terrain and Its Implications,” Cultural Values 6(1 & 2) (2002), pp. 153–165.
8. Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff, “Diaspora Identity and the Potential for Violence: Toward an Identity-Mobilization Framework,” Identity 8(1) (2008), pp. 67–68.
9. Linnet Taylor and Julia Purcell, 2007. “Understanding and Engaging With Diasporas,” Report on Wilton Park Conference, 3–6 December, pp. 6–7, 21.
10. Wolfram Zunzer, 2005. “Potential Peace Actors Outside Their Home Land,” New Routes 10(1) (2005), pp. 5–6.
11. Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler, “Greed and Grievance in Civil War,” Oxford Economic Papers 56 (2004), p. 575.
12. Taylor and Purcell, “Understanding and Engaging,” pp. 1–2.
13. Kenneth Bush, “Diaspora as Peacebuilders: Considerations for Analysis, Policy and Practice,” in A. Swain, ed., Diasporas Armed Conflict and Peacebuilding in Their Homelands (Uppsala University, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Report No. 79, 2007).
14. M. Berdal, “Beyond Greed and Grievance—and Not Too Soon,” Review of International Studies 31 (2005), 694–6 95.
15. Wolfram Zunzer, “Diaspora Communities and Civil Conflict Transformation,” Berghof Occasional Paper, 26 (2004), pp. 1–50.
16. Adrian Guelke, ed., “Introduction,” in New Perspectives on the Northern Ireland Conflict (Aldershot and Brookfield, VT: Avebury, 1994), p. 7.
17. This is an inevitable simplification of the complex political and cultural identities within Northern Ireland, which have been changing over time. For in- depth analyses of the region see B. O’Leary and J. McGarry, The Politics of Antagonism: Understanding Northern Ireland (2nd ed.) (London: The Athlone Press, 1996); J. Ruane and J. Todd, The Dynamics of Conflict in Northern Ireland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); M. Cox, A. Guelke, and F. Stephen, eds., A Farewell to Arms? (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2006).
18. For more detail on the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland see: M. Farrell, Northern Ireland: The Orange State (London: Pluto Press, 1976); E. McCann, War and an Irish Town (3rd ed.) (London: Pluto Press, 1993); B. Purdie, Politics in the Streets: The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1990); F. Ó Dochartaigh, Ulster's White Negros: From Civil Rights to Innsurrection (Oakland, CA: AK Books, 1994); N. Ó Dochartaigh, From Civil Rights to Armalites: Derry and the Birth of the Irish Troubles (Cork: Cork University Press, 1997).
19. William Zartman, “Negotiating Internal Conflict: Incentives and Intractability,” International Negotiation 6(3) (March 2001), p. 298.
20. Attitudes toward the Good Friday Agreement of April 1998 remain contested within the academic community with some regarding it as a sophisticated example of consociational democracy, whereas others view it as the institutionalisation of sectarianism, which will entrench community divisions in Northern Ireland rather than transcending them. For more on this debate see J. McGarry, ed., Northern Ireland and the Divided World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001); H. Patterson, Ireland Since 1939: The Persistence of Conflict (London: Penguin, 2007) J. Ruane and J. Todd, eds., After the Good Friday Agreement: Analysing Political Change in Northern Ireland (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 1999).
21. Christine Fair, “Diaspora Involvement in Insurgencies: Insights from the Khalistan and Tamil Eelam Movements,” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 11(1) (Spring 2005); Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, “Tamil Diaspora Politics,” in The Encyclopedia of Diasporas, eds. Melvin Ember, Carol Ember, and Ian Skoggard (New Haven, CT: Yale/Kluwer, 2004), pp. 493–501.
22. Marshall R. Singer, “Prospects for Conflict Management in the Sri Lankan Ethnic Crisis,” in Joseph V. Montville, ed., Conflict and Peace Making in Multiethnic Societies (New York: Lexington Books, 1991).
23. Amanda Donahoe, “Sri Lanka,” in Review Digest: Human Rights and the War on Terror (Denver: Human Rights and Human Welfare, 2005, pp. 183–193).
24. Fair, “Diaspora Involvement in Insurgencies.”
25. Jayadeva Uyangoda, “Negotiation for Conflict Resolution: Lessons from Sri Lanka's Past Experience,” in Jayadeva Uyangoda, ed., Conflict, Conflict Resolution & Peace Building (Colombo: Colombo University, 2005).
26. Ibid.
27. Jayantha Dhanapala, “Sri Lanka Peace Process: Problems and Prospects,” Secretary General for Coordinating the Peace Process, and Senior Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka's address to Asia Society's Washington Center, Washington, DC, 12 September 2005.
28. Christine Fair, “Faltering Sri Lanka's Peace Process: Sri Lanka's Drift Back into War,” Journal of International Peace Operations 2(3) (November–December 2006).
30. Paul Arthur, Special Relationships: Britain, Ireland and the Northern Ireland Problem (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2000), p. 136; Ray O’Hanlon, The New Irish Americans (Colorado: Roberts Rinehart, 1998), p. 13.
31. Fair, “Diaspora Involvement in Insurgencies.”
32. Rajesh Venugopal, “The Global Dimensions of Conflict in Sri Lanka.” Paper presented to the conference on “Globalization and Self-determination Movements,” Pomona College, 21–22 January 2003.
33. Rohan Gunaratna, “Internationalisation of the Tamil Conflict (and its Implications),” South Asia 20 (Special Issue, 1997), pp. 119–151.
34. Sriskandarajah, “Tamil Diaspora Politics”; W. Zunzer, “Diaspora Communities and Civil Conflict Transformation”; Camilla Orjuela, “Distant Warriors, Distant Peace Workers? Multiple Diaspora Roles in Sri Lanka's Violent Conflict.” Background paper to the Expert Forum on “Capacity Building for Peace and Development: Roles of Diaspora,” in Toronto, Canada, 19–20 October 2006.
35. R. Cheran, “Diaspora Circulation and Transnationalism Agents for Change in the Post Conflict Zones of Sri Lanka.” Policy paper submitted to Berghof Foundation for Conflict Management, Berlin, Germany, 2004.
36. Venugopal, “The Global Dimensions of Conflict in Sri Lanka.”
37. Ibid.
38. A. Guelke, “Northern Ireland: International and North/South Issues,” in W. Crotty and D. Schmitt, eds., Ireland and the Politics of Change (London: Longman, 1998), p. 203.
39. A. J. Wilson, “The Ulster Unionist Party and the US Role in the Northern Ireland Peace Process, 1994–2000,” Policy Studies Journal 28(4) (2000), p. 863.
40. J. Dumbrell, “The New American Connection: President George W. Bush and Northern Ireland,” in M. Cox, A. Guelke, and F. Stephen, A Farewell to Arms? Beyond the Good Friday Agreement (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006), p. 359.
41. Gunaratna, “Internationalisation of the Tamil Conflict.”
42. Charu Lata Hogg, “Sri Lanka: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) and Child Recruitment,” Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Forum on Armed Groups and the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, Chateau de Bossey, Switzerland, 4–7 July 2006.
43. R. Cheran, 2004, “Diaspora Circulation and Transnationalism Agents.”
44. Hogg, “Sri Lanka.”
45. K. M. De Silva, “Diaspora Dilemmas: Australia and the Sri Lanka Conflict,” Austral Policy Forum, 07–12A, RMIT University, Nautilus Institute, 24 May 2007.
46. Sarah Wayland, “Ethnonationalist Networks and Transnational Opportunities: The Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora,” Review of International Studies 30(3) (July), pp. 405–426.
47. Meena Nallainathan, “Staring Down the Tigers,” Ryerson Review of Journalism (Spring 2007), p. 5.
48. Gunaratna, “Internationalisation of the Tamil Conflict.”
49. Venugopal, “The Global Dimensions of Conflict in Sri Lanka.”
50. Sriskandarajah, “Tamil Diaspora Politics.”
51. Fair, “Diaspora Involvement in Insurgencies.”
52. Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler, “Greed and Grievance in Civil War,” Oxford Economic Papers 56(4) (2004), pp. 563–595.
53. Guelke, Ireland and the Politics of Change, p. 204.
54. A. Wilson, “Aspects of the Clinten Administration's Economic Support for the Northern Ireland Peace Process, 1994–2000.” The Journal of Conflict Studies 23(1) (2007), p. 165.
55. O’Hanlon, The New Irish Americans, p. 207.
56. Richard Finnegan, “Irish American Relations,” in William Crotty and David Schmitt, eds., Ireland on the World Stage (London: Pearson, 2002), p. 99.
57. R. J. Briand, “Bush, Clinton, Irish America and the Irish Peace Process,” Political Quarterly 73(4) (April–June, 2002), p. 174.
58. A. J. Wilson, “The Congressional Friends of Ireland and the Anglo-Irish Agreement,” ch. 9. in Irish-America and the Ulster Conflict 1968–1995 (1995), available at http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/aia/wilson95.htm#chap9
59. Niall Burgess, Irish Consul General of New York (Interviewed by author in New York on 9 September 2008).
60. Fair, “Diaspora Involvement in Insurgencies.”
61. Venugopal, “The Global Dimensions of Conflict in Sri Lanka.”
62. Ibid.
63. Sriskandarajah, “Tamil Diaspora Politics.”
64. Fair, “Diaspora Involvement in Insurgencies.”
65. Orjuela, “Distant Warriors, Distant Peace Workers.”
66. Venugopal, “The Global Dimensions of Conflict in Sri Lanka.”
67. Zunzer, “Diaspora Communities and Civil Conflict Transformation,” p. 50; Fair, “Diaspora Involvement in Insurgencies.”
68. Adrian Guelke, “Northern Ireland: International and North/South Issues,” in William Crotty and David Schmitt, eds., Ireland and the Politics of Change (London: Longman, 1998), p. 204; Timothy Lynch, Turf War: The Clinton Administration and Northern Ireland (London: Ashgate, 2004), p. 114.
69. Arthur, Special Relationships, p. 153.
70. John Dumbrell, ‘“Hope and History’: The US and Peace in Northern Ireland,” in Michael Cox, Adrian Guelke, and Fiona Stephen, eds., A Farewell to Arms? From Long War to Long Peace in Northern Ireland (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000), p. 216.
71. Arian Guelke, “Northern Ireland and the International System,” in W. Crotty and D. Schmitt, eds., Ireland on the World Stage (London: Pearson, 2002), p. 136.
72. Deaglan De Breadun, The Far Side of Revenge: Making Peace in Northern Ireland (Cork: The Collins Press, 2001), p. 11.
73. Adrian Guelke, “Northern Ireland: International and North/South Issues,” in William Crotty and David Schmitt, eds., Ireland and the Politics of Change (London: Longman, 1998), p. 208; Dumbrell, ‘“Hope and History,”’ p. 220; Michael Cox, “Bringing in the ‘International’: The IRA Ceasefire and the End of the Cold War,” International Affairs 73(4) (1997), p. 677.
74. W. Hazleton, “Encouragement from the Sidelines: Clinton's Role in the Good Friday Agreement,” Irish Studies in International Affairs 11 (2000), p. 104. For more on the role of O’Dowd and corporate Irish-America in engaging the Clinton White House in the Northern Ireland peace process see Arthur, Special Relationships.
75. Dumbrell, ‘“Hope and History,’” p. 217.
76. George Mitchell, Making Peace (London: Heinemann, 1999), p. 178; Dumbrell, ‘“Hope and History,’” p. 218.
78. LTTE Front Organizations in West Fund LTTE War Chest, Says Jayantha Dhanapala in Washington. Asian Tribune, 13 September 2005. http://www.asiantribune.com/oldsite/show_news.php?id=15616
79. Fair, “Diaspora Involvement in Insurgencies.”
80. Sugeeswara Senadhira, “Asian Affairs on Sri Lanka,” Asian Affairs (September 2002).
81. Fair, “Diaspora Involvement in Insurgencies.”
82. Senadhira, “Asian Affairs on Sri Lanka.”
83. Available at www.tamilcanadian.com
84. Orjuela, “Distant Warriors.”
85. Joell Demmers, “New Wars and Diasporas: Suggestions for Research and Policy,” Journal of Peace Conflict and Development Issue 11 (November 2007).
86. Taylor and Purcell, “Understanding and Engaging,” p. 16.