Modern Diasporas in International Politics

Originally published in 1986, this book focuses on the role and influence of ethnic diasporas on international and trans-state politics. It is particularly concerned with the relations between the homelands and host countries. In recent years the networks created by ethnic diasporas have become increasingly important in the international arena. They are now an integral and permanent feature of national and international politics. The Hispanic community in the United States, the Pakistanis and Palestinians in the Gulf, the Turkish in Western Europe and the Israelis in the USA and Canada have established themselves as new diasporas. The cultural, political and economic activity of these diasporas are no less intensive than those which characterised diasporas established during the large migrations in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Gabriel Sheffer was an Associate Director of the Leonard Davis Institute of International Relations and Senior Lecturer of Political Science at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.