Diaspora Lobbies And The Us Government

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.

Studies the impact of lobbying efforts by domestic ethnic groups and foreign governments on US policymaking. Congress and Diaspora Politics examines the impact of lobbying efforts by domestic ethnic groups and foreign governments on US policymaking. Over time, the number and variety of ethnic groups have grown, and foreign governments have increasingly turned to professional lobbyists rather than relying on their diplomatic corps to cultivate relationships with Congress. The case studies presented here examine this new lobbying environment by focusing on Jewish American, Muslim American, and Cuban American interest groups as well as lobbying efforts by the governments of Turkey, Armenia, Mexico, and others. They explore the strategies, tactics, and resources utilized to impact policymaking. The volume also offers perspectives of those who have worked on both sides of the lobbying equation—“a view from K Street” (the lobbying side) and “a view from the Hill” (the congressional side). Finally, challenges lawmakers face when diaspora interests intersect with national interests are covered. James A. Thurber is University Distinguished Professor of Government at American University and the editor of many books, including (with Jordan Tama) Rivals for Power, Sixth Edition: Presidential-Congressional Relations. Colton C. Campbell is Professor of National Security Strategy at the National War College. His many books include Congress and Civil-Military Relations (coedited with David P. Auerswald). David A. Dulio is Professor of Political Science at Oakland University and the author of many books, including For Better or Worse? How Political Consultants are Changing Elections in the United States, also published by SUNY Press.

'Ask What You Can Do For Your (New) Country' focuses on a previously unexamined phenomenon: how host governments utilize diasporas to advance their foreign policy agendas in mutually beneficial ways. The text advances a four-factor theoretical model to analyze the phenomenon for when this occurs, and it delves into the multiple avenues across which it takes place, in a variety of regimes, and across political, security, and commercial matters, proposing a classification with examples worldwide.

"A joint publication of the Social Science Research Council and New York University Press."

The Israel lobby is a loose coalition of right-wing individuals and organisations that actively works to shape U.S. foreign policy. Here, the authors claim that there is something deeply worrying about the Israel lobby's influence on U.S. foreign policy.

All the components needed to construct an Arab lobby exist; the significant Arab Diaspora in the US, the historic strategic relationship between Arab Gulf States and the US, and the Gulf's economic wealth. However, lobbying is alien to Arab culture and largely absent from its political landscape. To achieve a fair and objective assessment of Arab Gulf lobbying it is necessary to have a thorough understanding of the prevailing Arab Gulf political culture that shapes it. The Arab Lobby and the US provides a timely contribution to this understanding. Studying attempts by Arab Gulf states to effectively lobby the US government, it explores aspects of their lobbying behaviour in order to identify the factors that lead to success and those that lead to failure from their lobbying endeavours. In this respect, the research utilizes two case studies: one in which Arab Gulf state lobbying was successful, and another in which lobbying failed. In tandem with an analysis of the strategies--or lack of them--behind Arab Gulf states' lobbying, the research examines additional relevant factors such as the organization and activism of the US Arab American community, the strategic value of the Arab Gulf to the US, and the negative image of Arabs in America. The book considers the obstacles to the establishment of an effective Arab Gulf lobby in the US in order to reach an informed conclusion that evaluates the prospects of an effective Arab Gulf lobby. As one of the few academic research works on the Arab Lobby, this work will be of value to scholars and policy makers interested in US domestic politics and Arab American activism, as well as students of Middle Eastern Studies, Arab Gulf studies and communication and public relations, among others.

This book is a collection of essays that were originally presented at a conference at the Lebanese American University in late May 2007, entitled “Politics, Culture and the Lebanese Diaspora.” It looks at various facets of the Lebanese Diaspora and examines the politics and culture of Lebanese migrants and their descendants in different parts of the world while detailing the communal, national and transnational elements of these practices and exploring the changing characteristics of politics and culture in respect to migration, Diaspora and globalization. The essays raise questions about the (in)compatible and interpenetrating relationships between these dynamics, and analyze processes of identity formation as cultural manifestations of migratory politics. The book is divided into three main sections. The first section deals with issues of identity and multiculturalism among Lebanese emigrants, concluding that identities are continuously molded and negotiated in the diaspora. It examines the formation of identities among second and third-generation migrants, and the changing conceptions of the meaning of roots and homelands. The second section deals with politics and activism in the Diaspora. It looks at how diasporas relate to the political processes in their homelands during post-conflict resolution and explores the role of Lebanese migrants abroad in the process of peace-building back home. The third part deals with the Diaspora in literature and media through the assessment of key writings on the explorations of self of the Lebanese abroad, drawing on how symbols of identification and conventions of representation become sites of conflict over time. The wide variety of perspectives presented in these papers invite us to challenge the notion of a fixed, bounded, and rigid homeland and identity, and move towards one that is more nomadic and fluid. They call us to pay attention to the symbols used in the cultural construction of both homelands and identities in the country of immigration and to think of the complex ways in which transnational politics affect the homeland and are in turn affected by it.

Why are migration policies sometimes heavily contested and high on the political agenda? And why do they, at other moments and in other countries, hardly lead to much public debate? The entrance and settlement of migrants in Western Europe has prompted various political reactions. In some countries anti-immigration parties have gained substantial public support while in others migration policies have been hardly controversial. The Politicisation of Migration examines the differences between seven Western European countries by developing a conceptual framework to empirically explain patterns of politicisation and de-politicisation. The analyses show that over the past decade immigration has been increasingly defined in socio-cultural terms and that it has been receiving less political attention since the economic crisis started in 2007. This book also looks at the role of mainstream parties and political actors in the process of politicisation, and demonstrates how the role of ‘challengers’ is more limited than often assumed. Contributing to literatures on migration, party politics and agenda-setting, the book will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of politics and migration studies.