Transnational authoritarianism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Transnational authoritarianism represents any effort to prevent acts of political dissent against an authoritarian state by targeting one or more existing or potential members of its emigrant or diaspora communities.[1][2] A range of states engage in these actions, from Soviet and Russian assassinations to forced disappearances of Chinese and Hong Kong citizens abroad. A recent Freedom House report details the extensive use of transnational authoritarianism by a rising number of countries acoss the world.[3]

Political scientists have identified that autocracies face specific challenges and opportunities in the international sphere that affect authoritarian practices. Specifically, the rise of transnationalism and practices that transcend national borders has led autocracies to develop strategies aiming to manage their citizens' migration.[4] According to political scientist Gerasimos Tsourapas, global autocracies engage in complex strategies of transnational repression, legitimation, and co-optation as well as cooperation with non-state actors.[5] Sociologist Dana M. Moss has argued for a typology of transnational authoritarianism,[6] as described in the next section.

Typology of transnational authoritarianism[]

Lethal retribution The actual or attempted assassinations of dissidents abroad by regime agents or proxies.
Threats Verbal or written warnings directed to members of the diaspora, including the summoning of individuals by regime officials to their embassies for this purpose.
Surveillance The gathering and sending of information about co-nationals to the state security apparatus by informant networks composed of regime agents, loyalists, and coerced individuals.
Exile The direct and indirect banishment of dissidents from the home country, including when the threat of physical confinement and harm prevents activists from returning.
Withdrawing scholarships The rescinding of students’ state benefits for refusing to participate in regime-mandated actions or organizations abroad.
Proxy punishment The harassment, physical confinement, and/or bodily harm of relatives in the home-country as a means of information-gathering and retribution against dissidents abroad.

See also[]

  • Interpol § Abusive requests for Interpol arrests

References[]

  1. ^ Tsourapas, Gerasimos (2019). "A Tightening Grip Abroad: Authoritarian Regimes Target Their Emigrant and Diaspora Communities". Migration Policy Institute.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ Baser, Bahar; Ozturk, Ahmet Erdi (2020-07-02). "Positive and Negative Diaspora Governance in Context: From Public Diplomacy to Transnational Authoritarianism". Middle East Critique. 29 (3): 319–334. doi:10.1080/19436149.2020.1770449. ISSN 1943-6149.
  3. ^ "Out of Sight, Not Out of Reach". Freedom House. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
  4. ^ Brand, Laurie A. (2006). Citizens Abroad: Emigration and the State in the Middle East and North Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  5. ^ Tsourapas, Gerasimos. "Global Autocracies: Strategies of Transnational Repression, Legitimation, and Co-Optation in World Politics". International Studies Review. doi:10.1093/isr/viaa061.
  6. ^ Moss, Dana M. (2016-09-19). "Transnational Repression, Diaspora Mobilization, and the Case of The Arab Spring". Social Problems. 63 (4): 480–498. doi:10.1093/socpro/spw019. ISSN 0037-7791.

Further reading[]

  • Tansey, Oisín. The International Politics of Authoritarian Rule. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
  • Brand, Laurie A. Citizens Abroad: Emigration and the State in the Middle East and North Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Retrieved from ""