Engagement from Afar: How the Role of the Diaspora Makes or Breaks National Secession Campaigns

This thesis examines the role of the diaspora, as defined below, in the strength and success of national secessionist movements in Kosovo and Tatarstan. The gaps in the literature provide sufficient space for a qualitative study that intends to further explore the relationship between co-ethnic diaspora communities and national secessionist movements in the homeland. Utilizing four measures of diaspora engagement, this paper hypothesizes that higher diaspora engagement with the independence movement increases the likelihood of the success of the movement. After testing this hypothesis against different kinds of data systematically gathered from multiple sources, this paper finds that the high engagement of the Kosovar Albanian diaspora strengthened the Kosovo independence campaign, while the lack of engagement from the Volga Tatar diaspora weakened the Tatarstan independence campaign