Diaspora Diplomacy, Emotions, and Disruption

In the latest issue of CPD Perspectives on Public Diplomacy, Alina Dolea, CPD Research Fellow and Principal Academic in Media, Communication and Politics at Bournemouth University, advances diaspora diplomacy scholarship and proposes a theoretical and analytical framework for further study in the field. 

In "Diaspora Diplomacy, Emotions, and Disruption: A Conceptual and Analytical Framework," Dolea asserts that enabling and disruptive emotions mediate diaspora assemblages comprising states, transnational nonstate actors and other international actors; and that diasporic agency, practices and discourses cannot be fully analysed and understood if divorced from their underpinning emotions. After reviewing existing literatures and current gaps, Dolea proposes a theoretical and analytical framework to study diaspora diplomacy that links (1) identity, belonging and transnational ties in diaspora, (2) with media, migration and digital diasporas, (3) distinguishes between diaspora as category of analysis (entity) and category of practice, and (4) integrates emotions and discourses.

She then applies this framework to a corpus of interviews with representatives of the Romanian diaspora organizations in the UK to explore how they define their (emotional) ties with home and host state, and how they construct their identity. Finally, recommendations and reflections are presented to inform policymaking related to diaspora diplomacy. 

Download the full text here.