As a nation of immigrants, the United States has long accepted that citizens who identify with an ancestral homeland may hold dual loyalties; yet Americans have at times regarded the persistence of foreign ties with suspicion, seeing them as a sign of potential disloyalty and a threat to national security. Diaspora Lobbies and the US Government brings together a group of distinguished scholars of international politics and international migration to examine this contradiction in the realm of American policy making, ultimately concluding that the relationship between diaspora groups and the government can greatly affect foreign policy. This relationship is not unidirectional-as much as immigrants make an effort to shape foreign policy, government legislators and administrators also seek to enlist them in furthering American interests. From Israel to Cuba and from Ireland to Iraq, the case studies in this volume illustrate how potential or ongoing conflicts raise the stakes for successful policy outcomes. Contributors provide historical and sociological context, gauging the influence of diasporas based on population size and length of time settled in the United States, geographic concentration, access to resources from their own members or through other groups, and the nature of their involvement back in their homelands. This collection brings a fresh perspective to a rarely discussed aspect of the design of US foreign policy and offers multiple insights into dynamics that may determine how the United States will engage other nations in future decades.
Contents Acknowledgments ix introduc tion 1 Diaspora-Government Relations in Forging US Foreign Policies 3 Josh DeWind and Renata Segura dia spor a s 2 The Effects of Diasporas' Nature, Types, and Goals on Hostland Foreign Policies 31 Gabriel Sheffer compe ting convergent or divergent intere s t s? 3 Between JDate and J Street: US Foreign Policy and the Liberal Jewish Dilemma in America 61 Yossi Shain and Neil Rogachevsky 4 Palestinians, Diasporas, and US Foreign Policy 76 Mohammed A. Bamyeh when dia spor a intere s t s shape foreign pol ic y 5 America's Role in the Northern Ireland Peace Process 97 Joseph E. Thompson 6 Cuban Americans and US Cuba Policy 132 Lisandro Perez viii Contents when government interests shape foreign policy 7 Diaspora Lobbying and Ethiopian Politics 163 Terrence Lyons 8 The Haitian Diaspora: Building Bridges after Catastrophe 185 Daniel P. Erikson diaspora-government convergence in policy making 9 The Iraqi Diaspora and the US Invasion of Iraq 211 Walt Vanderbush historical perspective 10 Convergence and Divergence Yesterday and Today in Diaspora-National Government Relations 239 Tony Smith Contributors 269 Index 273
