Zed Books Diasporas, Development and Peacemaking in the Horn of Africa (Africa Now)

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Diasporas, Development and Peacemaking in the Horn of AfricaBy Liisa Laakso, Petri HautaniemiZed Books Ltd.Copyright © 2014 Zed BooksAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-1-78360-098-4ContentsAcknowledgements |, vii, Introduction: Diasporas for peace and development PETRI HAUTANIEMI AND LIISA LAAKSO, 1, PART ONE Contextualizing the Horn of Africa and the diaspora, 1 Diaspora and multi-level governance for peace LIISA LAAKSO, 13, 2 Regional political history and the production of diasporas GUENTHER SCHLEE, 28, PART TWO Case studies from the Horn of Africa, 3 Rebuilding Somaliland through economic and educational engagement MARKUS VIRGIL HOEHNE AND MOHAMED HASSAN IBRAHIM, 53, 4 The Somali diaspora in conflict and peacebuilding: the Peace Initiative Programme MAHDI ABDILE, 77, 5 The 2007 delegation of the Muslim diaspora to Ethiopia DEREJE FEYISSA, 98, 6 The Ethiopian diaspora and the Tigray Development Association BAHRU ZEWDE, GEBRE YNTISO AND KASSAHUN BERHANU, 122, PART THREE European approaches to diaspora engagement, 7 Interaction between Somali organizations and Italian and Finnish development actors PETRA MEZZETTI, VALERIA SAGGIOMO AND PÄIVI PIRKKALAINEN, 165, 8 Approaches to diaspora engagement in the Netherlands GIULIA SINATTI, 190, 9 Norwegian collaboration with diasporas ROJAN EZZATI AND CINDY HORST, 210, Afterword PETRI HAUTANIEMI, LIISA LAAKSO AND MARIKO SATO, 225, About the contributors |, 228, Index |, 231, CHAPTER 1| Diaspora and multi-level governance for peaceLiisa LaaksoDiasporas are increasingly being taken into account as legitimate stakeholders in international decision-making. 'A diasporic analysis brings new actors to the fore and challenges our accepted notions about political territory and cultural belonging' (Zack-Williams and Mohan 2002: 233). Thus arises the need to 'rethink belonging within a global context' (Axel 2002: 411). Surprisingly, however, neither mainstream international relations (IR) literature nor its opponents such as neorealism, neoliberal institutionalism, constructivism or new constitutionalism have paid much attention to diaspora. Research on Africa is a good example of this. Apart from cultural studies and the examination of identity formation, much of the literature on African diaspora has concentrated on economic aspects: labour markets, brain drain and recently the importance of remittances, skills and investments for development (see Zack-Williams and Mohan 2002). The capacity of diaspora members to support continuing warfare, to build peace or to advocate international interventions and influence public opinion has been given less attention (see Brinkerhoff 2006: 27). Thus the question, does Africa even matter in this regard?Kevin Dunn has argued that Africa is marginal for the dominant IR theories and international politics in general. The common assumption that 'Africa does not have meaningful politics, only humanitarian disasters' has made it 'a peripheral concern for the major powers' (Dunn 2001: 1–2). There is one exception, however: theorizing on the so-called 'new wars'. Scholars of the new war literature argue that motives, resources, agencies and impacts of new wars are too complex to be grasped by the classical bipolar models or zero-sum games developed in IR within the superpower rivalry. Mark Duffield has defined the new wars as 'a form of non-territorial network war', which opposes and allies with 'transborder resource networks' (Duffield 2001: 14). According to Mary Kaldor, illegal trafficking of humans, arms, drugs and natural resources has built war logic 'into the functioning of the economy' (Kaldor 2001: 9). In this context the role of diaspora is explicitly acknowledged. Diasporas are seen as providing support for new wars in direct and indirect ways, through the misuse of remittances, money laundering, know-how and new war techniques (ibid.: 7, 85, 102–3).As a consequence, there is a theoretical vacuum in