Non-State Actors: Diaspora to Organized Crime

Diaspora communities — populations living outside their ancestral homeland while maintaining ties to it — act as transnational political actors through remittances, lobbying, and direct involvement in homeland politics. The Indian diaspora, the largest in the world according to United Nations estimates, sent over one hundred billion dollars in remittances to India in recent years, a sum that rivals or exceeds foreign direct investment for many recipient countries. Diaspora lobbying groups, such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) or Irish-American organizations that influenced U.S. policy toward Northern Ireland during the peace process of the 1990s, illustrate how communities abroad can shape the foreign policy of their host states.