Overview

Human geopolitics, the competition for population rather than territory, is an essential but weakly understood dimension of world politics today. Such competition has preceded violent conflict throughout history, but has been muted since the Treaties of Westphalia laid the territorial foundations of the modern international system in the mid-seventeenth century. Today, however, human geopolitics is being resurrected in unanticipated ways, as governments are enabled and encouraged to engage their emigrant diasporas. How and why is this happening? Until now these questions have been difficult to answer. The majority of research attention has focused on questions of immigration policy in a handful of wealthy migrant destination countries, largely ignoring the emigration policies that preoccupy the world�s many migrant origin states. This book addresses that research imbalance, by focusing on the overlooked sending side of migration policy. Drawing on data covering all UN members across the post-WWII period, and fieldwork with high-level policy makers across 60 states and a dozen international organisations, the book charts the re-emergence of human geopolitics through the global spread of diaspora institutions � government ministries and offices dedicated to emigrants and their descendants. It calls for the development of stronger guiding principles and evaluation frameworks to govern these new state-diaspora relations in an era of unprecedented global interdependence.

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9780191871931

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Reviews

"""With Human Geopolitics, Alan Gamlen crowns more than a decade of work studying diaspora institutions.... Human Geopolitics�describes the impressive trend for creating diaspora institutions, provides explanations as to why that trend took hold and, most grippingly, provides a narrative of how it occurred. The book has a remarkable geographic scope, providing short case studies of the creation of diaspora institutions in all regions of the world. ...Because of its coverage, this study seems fundamental to the development of the literature on diasporas.... the book serves as a splendid appetiser for developing many enticing research projects... �Intriguing models pepper the book through and through,�..."" -- Dr Luicy Pedroza, Research Fellow, GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies ""Gamlen's Human Geopolitics �makes a convincing argument for the changing nature of diaspora governance based on a comparative mixed-method study with an impressive global and longitudinal scope. The book provides a compelling story about the political drivers of this process and invites scholars to further explore, both qualitatively and quantitatively,�geographic and temporal variation in adherence to this new global trend. The original data collected by the author will doubtless be in high demand not just among migration and diaspora scholars, but also within the field of citizenship studies at large."" -- Prof. Dr. Maarten Vink, Professor of Political Sociology, University of Maastricht ""Alan Gamlen's Human Geopolitics�enters this field as a powerful and especially well-informed critical analysis....This empirical analysis is another key reason why the book will become an essential reference in this field....no one has attempted such an authoritative and wide-ranging review before and this becomes the reference to which all other attempts must improve on.... The central conclusion is a powerful one: the rapid spread of diaspora institutions results from a network of international organisations sponsoring global policy exchanges and is evidence of an evolving migration regime. This is ground-breaking stuff, it demonstrates the value of theoretical analysis of the fantastic new policy database and presents an important response to the 'missing regime' thesis of global migration governance.... The book has provided a framework of very significant and lasting value...."" -- Professor Michael Collyer, Professor of Geography, University of Sussex ""Alan Gamlen has written an ambitious and insightful book on the emergence and spread of diaspora management institutions.....He provides a superb intellectual history of the process and unpacks the mechanisms....There is no doubt that the phenomenon under study in Human Geopolitics is of critical importance today.... Alan Gamlen has written an important comparative book that will be widely read and debated by political scientists, sociologists, political geographers, and migration studies scholars. His empirical work documenting the spread of diaspora institutions already constitutes a seminal 'academic public good'; while the intellectual history of the emerging global migration regime he has provided us with is a well-timed and much appreciated contribution."" -- Harris Mylonas, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University"

With Human Geopolitics, Alan Gamlen crowns more than a decade of work studying diaspora institutions.... Human Geopolitics describes the impressive trend for creating diaspora institutions, provides explanations as to why that trend took hold and, most grippingly, provides a narrative of how it occurred. The book has a remarkable geographic scope, providing short case studies of the creation of diaspora institutions in all regions of the world. ...Because of its coverage, this study seems fundamental to the development of the literature on diasporas.... the book serves as a splendid appetiser for developing many enticing research projects... Intriguing models pepper the book through and through, ... -- Dr Luicy Pedroza, Research Fellow, GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies Gamlen's Human Geopolitics makes a convincing argument for the changing nature of diaspora governance based on a comparative mixed-method study with an impressive global and longitudinal scope. The book provides a compelling story about the political drivers of this process and invites scholars to further explore, both qualitatively and quantitatively, geographic and temporal variation in adherence to this new global trend. The original data collected by the author will doubtless be in high demand not just among migration and diaspora scholars, but also within the field of citizenship studies at large. -- Prof. Dr. Maarten Vink, Professor of Political Sociology, University of Maastricht Alan Gamlen's Human Geopolitics enters this field as a powerful and especially well-informed critical analysis....This empirical analysis is another key reason why the book will become an essential reference in this field....no one has attempted such an authoritative and wide-ranging review before and this becomes the reference to which all other attempts must improve on.... The central conclusion is a powerful one: the rapid spread of diaspora institutions results from a network of international organisations sponsoring global policy exchanges and is evidence of an evolving migration regime. This is ground-breaking stuff, it demonstrates the value of theoretical analysis of the fantastic new policy database and presents an important response to the 'missing regime' thesis of global migration governance.... The book has provided a framework of very significant and lasting value.... -- Professor Michael Collyer, Professor of Geography, University of Sussex Alan Gamlen has written an ambitious and insightful book on the emergence and spread of diaspora management institutions.....He provides a superb intellectual history of the process and unpacks the mechanisms....There is no doubt that the phenomenon under study in Human Geopolitics is of critical importance today.... Alan Gamlen has written an important comparative book that will be widely read and debated by political scientists, sociologists, political geographers, and migration studies scholars. His empirical work documenting the spread of diaspora institutions already constitutes a seminal 'academic public good'; while the intellectual history of the emerging global migration regime he has provided us with is a well-timed and much appreciated contribution. -- Harris Mylonas, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University

Author Information

Alan Gamlen, Associate Professor of Geography, Monash University Alan Gamlen is Associate Professor of Human Geography at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Alan's research focuses on human migration and ethnicity, with special interests in the governance of international migration, diasporas, and transnationalism. He has written more than 50 articles, book chapters, and working papers on these topics, appearing in a range of journals including Political Geography, Progress in Human Geography, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, and International Migration Review. As an editor, he has co-published several books and special issues (including Migration and Global Governance and Diasporas Reimagined), and he is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Migration Studies, published by Oxford University Press, and Co-Editor of the Policy Press book series on Global Migration and Social Change.

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