Constructing the “Domestic Abroad”: Re-examining the Role of Diasporas in International Relations

On 9 April 2003, the American-led invasion of Iraq seemed to have reached an important turning point as troops rumbled into Baghdad. With the assistance of the occupying force, Iraqis took to the streets, toppling and dismantling the forty-foot statue of the dictator that had loomed over Firdos Square. This appeared to be the pivotal moment of liberation that the Bush administration had promised, a speedy defeat coupled with jubilant Iraqis praising the cause. The global news network CNN, not wanting to miss a moment of the dramatic unfolding events, went live . . . to Dearborn, Michigan.

This was not an error in the satellite feed or an embarrassing glitch in their reporting of the invasion. Rather, the network was beaming live shots of the sizeable Iraqi diaspora community there, who had taken to the streets by the hundreds to celebrate the end of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Dearborn is home to one of the world’s largest communities of Iraqis living outside their country of origin. Many had fled the country decades earlier as Hussein began brutally consolidating power and engaging in the systematic elimination of political enemies. Images of Dearborn and Baghdad were juxtaposed side-by-side on screen, a powerful reminder that key events in international affairs have repercussions not only for those living in their immediate wake, but for far-flung diasporic communities dispersed by suffering and catastrophe. As the Iraqi occupation continued, and the American-led process of “de-Ba’athification” went forth, numerous leaders and officials in the transitional government would be drawn from diasporic communities throughout the globe.

Yet despite the impact that such world events have on these communities, or the ways in which diasporas shape events in their countries of origin and globally, sophisticated analysis of diasporas in the field of international relations has been lacking. Dominant disciplinary frameworks tend to lump diasporas into broader articulations of “transnationalism,” or interpret them monolithically as a force that undermines the coherence of national borders, territorial sovereignty, and traditional notions of the modern “nation-state.” While such understandings constitute a starting point for our understandings of diasporas in international relations, it is a shaky foundation at best. In her book The Domestic Abroad: Diasporas in International Relations, Latha Varadarajan aims to move beyond such stylized categorizations, providing both a theory and an application of the theory which better accounts for the ways in which states engage with their diasporas or “domestic abroad.” As she astutely notes early in the work, “[i]f anything, these frameworks act more as straitjackets that preclude us from making sense of the manifold complexities of the domestic abroad” (31).¹

Here, I critically examine Varadarajan’s work, arguing that it constitutes a vital theoretical and conceptual contribution—perhaps even more so than she recognizes. In particular, The Domestic Abroad challenges us to think of the ways in which diasporic communities paradoxically both undermine and affirm the modern nation-state as an institutional form. Furthermore, Varadarajan shows the ways in which global economic structures and hegemonic domestic elites drive states to construct their relationships with diasporic communities in specific, economically advantageous ways. Rather than being unidirectional or monolithic, a state’s relationship with diasporic communities is a complex, ongoing process that can vary dramatically from country to country, or over time within a single state. I then examine Varadarajan’s presentation of India to illustrate her theoretical argument and method of analysis. In conclusion, I offer some criticism and examine what I feel to be the shortcomings of this framework as articulated thus far. In addition, I offer suggestions regarding the future direction of research that will be able to utilize Varadarajan’s promising, if nascent, conceptual starting point.

Theoretically Grappling with Diasporic Communities in International Relations

At the outset of her book, Varadarajan makes a somewhat counterintuitive observation. After an introduction filled with anecdotes about the ways in which diasporas are shaping events in both their host...