Home Thoughts From Abroad: Diasporas and Peace Building in Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka

This article looks at the dynamics of Diaspora groups as a possible catalyst for peace-building within violent segmented societies. With the help of two case studies, Irish-America's role in Northern Ireland and Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora's role in Sri Lanka, it locates the variable impacts of Diaspora involvement in violent conflicts within their homelands. Despite their unique histories and individual complexity, both of these cases illustrate that Diasporas have a significant role to play in peace-building, are diverse rather than homogenous communities, and that they represent an important and often underutilized resource to bring negotiated settlement to violent conflicts.

This article examines the dynamics of Diaspora communities as possible catalysts for peace-building within violently divided societies. Migration before, during, and in the aftermath of political conflict raises an important question for scholars and policymakers who seek to understand such regions and take action to manage or transform the political violence within them. To what extent do these Diaspora populations take an interest in the homeland and seek to influence the political process there by either fueling conflict or terrorist activities or by working to help bring it to an end? This article uses two dramatically different case studies (Sri Lanka and Northern Ireland) to look at the variable impacts of Diaspora communities on efforts to bring politically motivated violence to an end.

Despite their unique histories and individual complexity, both cases illustrate the fact that Diasporas have a significant potential role to play in peace-building, are diverse multilayered communities, and can play a variety of roles at different stages in a conflict and during efforts to negotiate and implement a political settlement.