Transnational authoritarianism

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] 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.[2] American sociologist Dana M. Moss has argued for a typology of transnational authoritarianism,[3] 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.

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.

References
  1. Tsourapas, Gerasimos (2019). "A Tightening Grip Abroad: Authoritarian Regimes Target Their Emigrant and Diaspora Communities". Migration Policy Institute.
  2. Brand, Laurie A. (2006). Citizens Abroad: Emigration and the State in the Middle East and North Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  3. 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.
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