Kith & Kin: a recurrent issue

[davidbfpo]

Thanks to a pointer at a RUSI-British Yemeni Society conference on leaving Aden in 1967 (more on another thread one day) I learnt that Yemenis from the Hadhramaut Region, the former colonial era Eastern Aden Protectorate, had a diaspora across the Indian Ocean to India and Indonesia, which remains active today. Not only with commercial trading, religion and family settlements long-established that remain today.

I wonder if these links have helped AQ and more recently ISIS with their mission to expand, not only in the Yemen, but elsewhere.

There is a new book, from July 2017, on the theme: 'Hadhramaut and Its Diaspora: Yemeni Politics, Identity and Migration'. For a review see:http://middleeastreviewsonline.com/m...ity-migration/

[davidbfpo]

As if by magic yesterday Hurst Publishers notified this book was due out: 'Pan-Islamic Connections: Transnational Networks Between South Asia and the Gulf', which has this short review:

Connections of trade, family, learning and faith have existed between South Asia and the Gulf for hundreds of years. This book focuses on their workings in the modern period with especial emphasis on Islam. It demonstrates the significant and complex interactions which take place across the region, some of which are of strategic potential.

Link:http://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/...-connections/?

No doubt there are books on the Omani relationship with East Africa, as a "lurker" reminded me; after all they were Zanzibar's rulers.

[davidbfpo]

Two papers in the latest 'Military Review' help to explain this issues.

The first is a 2006 article by the late Professor Samuel Huntingdon 'Diasporas, Foreign Governments, and American Politics' who looked at Indian, Jewish and Mexican population groups. He concluded:

American politics is increasingly an arena in which homeland governments and their diasporas attempt to shape American policy to serve homeland interests. This brings them into battles with other homelands and their diasporas fought out on Capitol Hill and in voting precincts across America. An ineluctable dynamic is at work. The more power the United States has in world politics, the more it becomes an arena of world politics, the more foreign governments and their diasporas attempt to influence American policy, and the less able the United States is to define and pursue its own national interests when these do not correspond with those of other countries that have exported people to America.

Link:http://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journ...ican-Politics/

The second is 'Russian Diaspora as a Means of Russian Foreign Policy' and ends with:

Russian foreign policy today is placing more and more importance on the use of soft power in support of the Russian diaspora.

Link:http://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journ...sian-Diaspora/

What is interesting is the graph of 'Proportions of Russian Population to the Country Population in the Former Soviet Republics: 1989 to 2005' as it shows as proportion they are shrinking and some quite large changes, e.g. Tajikistan 23.5% to 1.1%. Checking Wiki it points out there was a civil war, the latest estimate is Russians make up less then 0.5% and the total population estimate in 2016 was 8.7m. See:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajikistan

[davidbfpo]

This article's full title is: 'The dangerous influence of expats: Diaspora groups are often out of touch with the mood back home' and appears on anheard of website, although the author's name is familiar and thanks to a "lurker".

The focus is on the recent Ukrainian elections and it ends with:

Of course expats deserve a voice in their new country. Just because their voice may be louder and more impassioned, however, does not mean it should be allowed to drown out the rest.

Link:https://unherd.com/2019/05/the-dange...nd=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3