Ethnic nationalist actors: Prospects for cooperation between ethnic nationalist homeland states and diaspora

The signature of ethnic nationalist communities is often assumed to be a combination of shared ancestry, culture, and values (for example see Anderson 1991; Gellner 1983; Smith 1986). Although these features reflect a common thread among ethnic nationalist communities, the question of what motivates the activities within these communities is far more complex. In this dissertation, I develop a model to clarify various elements of the complex nature of transnational ethnic nationalist communities. I explore the issue of how identity, homeland/diaspora/and adoptive state relationships, and homeland/diaspora/and adoptive state power affect cooperation between homelands and their diaspora communities.; The dependent variable discussed in this thesis is "cooperation" between ethnic nationalist homelands and their diaspora. I gathered data from Lexis-Nexis news stories and coded all appropriate data using the Text Analysis By Augmenting Replacement Instructions (TABARI) coding program; cooperative events were coded according to a modified World Event Interaction Study (WEIS) scale. In addition to measuring "cooperation", I compiled a data set that includes demographic information for all states and ethnic groups included in the Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook (1999). I also gathered information regarding shared ethnic nationalist identity, cultural similarity, and issues that directly relate to homelands, diaspora groups, and adoptive states' relationships and power.; In order to explore homeland/diaspora cooperation from cultural similarity, homeland relationship or power perspective, I collected descriptive data for 42 homeland states that are included in this study. For those homelands that did interact with a diaspora group in 1998, I modeled how cultural similarity, homeland relationships and power prospects affected homeland/diaspora cooperation.; I found that homelands were more likely to interact with their diaspora when other international actors, particularly international institutions, targeted their diaspora. Furthermore, I found that cultural similarity, homeland relationships and power do affect homeland/diaspora cooperation, however the impact of variables associated with each of these concepts is dependent on whether one controls for shared identity between homeland and diaspora groups.