Imagining the Homeland from Afar: Community and Peoplehood in the Age of the Diaspora

Diasporas--understood as groups of individuals or communities who carry an image of a homeland that is separate from the host land in which they reside--have always been with us. As long as there have been large movements of people across boundaries, be it voluntary or involuntary, there have been diasporas. The image of the homeland that diasporas carry could be real (an existing country) or imagined (a future country). In whatever way diasporas imagine the homeland, they have often attempted to act as if they belong to we the people of the homeland. They imagine themselves to be outside the state but inside the people. Homeland governments have often welcomed (or encouraged) diasporas\u27 interventions in homeland affairs, but not always. Whether diasporas are indeed inside the people although outside the state becomes an issue both when the interests of diasporas and governments of the homelands converge and when they diverge. This Article explores how and for what purpose diasporas could be considered to be part of the people of the homeland and when not. This requires a theory of peoplehood that this Article develops and defends. Using the notion of community of stakeholders, the Article indicates when and how those who are outside the state and yet consider themselves to be inside the people can participate in the life of the homeland. The Article also advances and defends the claim that the relationship between diasporas and homelands enables bridging the claims of cosmopolitans and unreconstructed territorialists, for the version of community that is worked out of the relationship between diasporas and homelands mediates the two aspects of people\u27s existence in this globalized world-national attachment and cosmopolitan sentiment. The homeland-diaspora relationship offers a point of departure for understanding how communities are formed and transformed; how legal obligations and allegiances develop and are altered; and generally, how a people constitutes itself both within and across territorial boundaries

International Propaganda and Developing Countries

This Article will use the term propaganda in its negative sense and explore its impact on developing nations\u27 capacity for self-determination. Following a brief suggestion about a workable definition in Part II, Part III isolates the particular threat that propaganda poses for developing nations. Part IV then surveys the fractured history of international propaganda regulation. Part V examines the relationship between self-determination and propaganda, with specific reference to disinformation and what will be termed structural propaganda. Individual state responses to propaganda are outlined in Part VI. Part VII explores the same issue on the international level and suggests the creation of an international right of correction as well as a mass media council. Part VIII explicitly links the right of correction and mass media council with the current international movement (primarily constituted by developing countries) for access to the international media. Indeed, this section argues that these two institutions--the right of correction and mass media council--must provide an integral part of the institutional framework through which developing countries may gain access to the international media. Finally, Part IX concludes that international solutions are available and should be adopted if developing nations are to escape the deleterious impact of propaganda