A major study of the vast--but until now unappreciated--influence of kinship and diaspora on international politics

This book discusses trans-border ethnic populations in the former Soviet Union in a broader conceptual context, highlighting the importance of diaspora issues both for post-Sovietologists and for scholars of comparative politics and international relations in general.

While kinship is among the basic organizing principles of all human life, its role in and implications for international politics and relations have been subject to surprisingly little exploration in International Relations (IR) scholarship. This volume is the first volume aimed at thinking systematically about kinship in IR – as an organizing principle, as a source of political and social processes and outcomes, and as a practical and analytical category that not only reflects but also shapes politics and interaction on the international political arena. Contributors trace everyday uses of kinship terminology to explore the relevance of kinship in different political and cultural contexts and to look at interactions taking place above, at and within the state level. The book suggests that kinship can expand or limit actors’ political room for maneuvereon the international political arena, making some actions and practices appear possible and likely, and others less so. As an analytical category, kinship can help us categorize and understand relations between actors in the international arena. It presents itself as a ready-made classificatory system for understanding how entities within a hierarchy are organized in relation to one another, and how this logic is all at once natural and social.

This book gives a detailed, comprehensive and insightful account of Nigerians’ international migration trajectories, drivers, processes and dynamics. The book is inspired by the orientation and conviction that, as developing nations, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the world struggle with pathways to development, the time has come to consistently factor in international migration so as to sustainably annex the gains and mitigate loss within the framework of Migration for Development (M4D). However, before migration can drive development, emigration and return forces must be sufficiently understood, especially with regards to the interface of kinship networks which punctuate and strongly influence behavioural characteristics and social relations of Africans. The book was written with strong sociological and anthropological elements and with important academic and pragmatic development orientations. It realistically engages with recent discourses and debates in migration and diaspora studies, kinship, return migration, remittances and migration for development policies and practices. The book is of both theoretical and practical importance, establishing a useful interface among theoretical, empirical and pragmatic issues with relevance not only for the largely ‘sending’ developing nations, but also for the ‘receiving’ developed nations of Europe, America and a few emerging economies of Asia. This book will be very useful as teaching, research and policy material.

Kinship and History in South Asia presents four papers given at a small conference of kinship studies scholars, “Kinship and History in South Asia,” at the University of Toronto in 1973. They draw upon one another and show several common concerns, particularly the theoretical importance of Dravidian systems. Yey they remain specialist studies, each within its own raison d’être. Brendra E. F. Beck contributes a study of the “kinship nucleus” in Tamil folklore, Levi-Straussian both in its treatment of kinship and of mythology. George L. Hart’s study of woman and the sacred in the ancient Tamil literature of the Sangam attempts to elucidate this literature in its own terms, and also to relate it to Beck’s “kinship nucleus.” Thomas R. Trautmann presents a critical examination of the evidence for cross-cousin marriage in early North India, attempting to determine historical fact from literary materials. Narendra K. Wagle offers a survey of the kinship categories to be found in the Pali Jatakas.

Based on new field research by an international team of post-Soviet specialists, this is the first comparative study to examine the complexities of trans-border ethnic groups and state-building in the former Soviet Union.The collapse of the Soviet state transformed internal administrative boundaries into international frontiers. Russians, Ukrainians, and other ethnic groups overnight became “nations abroad,” communities separated from their ostensible homelands by shifting interstate borders. Since 1991, these new diasporas have had a powerful impact on minorities policy within the Soviet successor states, as well as on relations between the newly independent republics.Focusing on seven key cases—Jews, Armenians, Russians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Poles, and Volga Tatars—this book offers unique insights into the power of diaspora politics within and between the new states of Eurasia. Political scientists, sociologists, and international relations experts will find this an indispensable guide to the complex interaction of nations and states in the post-Soviet world.

Analyzing the role and impact of Diaspora Organizations (DOs) in International Relations (IR), this interdisciplinary volume provides empirical accounts of their work across Europe, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East. Over the last three decades, DOs have increased in number, spread to new regions, and addressed an ever-widening array of global problems, yet they have not received sufficient attention in IR in spite of the inter- and transnational nature of their involvements. Contributions explore important topics such as: The role of DOs in cooperation and conflict and in change and stability; DOs as transnational organizations and their degree of autonomy and power within the networks in which they operate; and The changing roles of DOs vis-à-vis states, regimes, and international organizations, when dealing with issues as diverse as peace, conflict, migration, integration, development, humanitarian action, human rights, religion, and economic growth. Demonstrating how IR can benefit from a stronger focus on DOs, this book will also help other disciplines gain insights into DOs and will prove useful to those in the fields of international relations, sociology, geography and anthropology.