1 The diffusion of power and the international ‘discovery’ of ‘diasporas’ 1 Rahel Kunz 1. Introduction Transnational diaspora networks have become global forces shaping the relationship between countries, regions and continents. 2 At the core of the ‘diffusion of authority’ debate lies the heightened influence of non-state or civil society actors 3 in global governing and its implications for state power. Existing literature on the diffusion of authority has focused on various actors, such as multinational firms, non-governmental organisations or criminal actors (Cutler, Haufler and Porter [eds], 1999; Hall and Biersteker [eds], 2002; Higgot, Underhill, and Bieler [eds], 2000). Yet, a recently ‘discovered’ civil society actor that supposedly plays an increasingly important role in international affairs has not received much attention in this literature: ‘the diaspora’. In what has been termed the ‘discovery of expatriate populations’ (Larner, 2007, p.334), recent years have seen an increasingly prominent discourse that portrays diasporas as newly emerging transnational actors, accompanied by a growing number of state, non-state and international institutions reaching out to expatriate populations. Diasporas have made it into policy documents and programming of a myriad of international organisations and ‘it is widely recognized that diasporas have an enhanced presence on the world stage today’ (Vertovec, 2006, p.3). Thereby, diasporas have become portrayed as a key civil society actor in international politics taking the role of development agents, transnational investors, promoters of trade and tourism, political activists, conflict instigators or peace brokers. By now, there is a rich literature on expatriate populations and their activities (Brinkerhoff [ed], 2008; de Haas, 2006; Gamlen, 2008; Mohamoud and Osman, 2008; Newland, 2004; Østergaard-Nielsen [ed], 2003; Shain, 1989; Van Hear, Pieke and Vertovec, 2004; Vertovec, 2006). This literature has so far mainly focused on the forms of expatriate involvement and the policies of countries of 1 This chapter was written in the context of a research project on ‘Migration Partnerships: A Tool for the Global Governance of Migration?’, based at the University of Lucerne. Funding by the Swiss Network for International Studies, the Swiss Federal Department for Foreign Affairs, and the Swiss Federal Office for Migration is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks also go to Sandra Lavenex and Joachim Blatter, as well as to the participants of the ECPR joint session workshop on ‘the Diffusion of Authority’ in Lisbon in 2009. In particular, I would like to thank the organisers of the workshop and editors of this volume, Stefano Guzzini and Iver Neumann, for their very helpful comments on earlier versions of this chapter. 2 http://www.diaspeace.org/ 3 The terms ‘private actors’, ‘non-state actors’ and ‘civil society’ are used as catch-all terms for a plethora of actors involved in world politics, there is disagreement on the exact meaning of these terms and various categorisation attempts exist, see: Arts, Noortmann and Reinalda [eds], 2001 or Colàs, 2001.