CGSC event: Diaspora Governance as Power: Repression, Co-optation, and Resistance Beyond Borders

The Centre for Global Security Challenges is delighted to host Professor Bahar Baser for a talk on ‘Diaspora Governance as Power: Repression, Co-optation, and Resistance Beyond Borders’.

Join us on Monday 16 February 2026 13.00 at Maurice Keyworth SR (1.04). This is an in-person event.

About the talk
This talk advances a critical approach to diaspora governance by examining how sending states govern populations beyond their borders through a spectrum of practices ranging from transnational repression to the cultivation of state-linked civil society. Drawing on case studies from Russia, Turkey, India, and Israel, it highlights diasporas’ own agency in navigating, resisting, or strategically engaging with these interventions. The presentation foregrounds tensions among sending states, host states, and diasporas, including intra-diaspora conflicts and host-state dilemmas around security, democratic governance, and social cohesion, and reflects on the broader implications for civil society and conflict dynamics in host contexts.

Speaker profile
Dr Bahar Baser is a Professor of Politics and International Relations at Durham University’s School of Government and International Affairs and a member of the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. Her research focuses on diaspora studies, peacebuilding, and conflict transformation, with a particular emphasis on the Middle East. She has conducted extensive research on diaspora engagement in peace processes, post-conflict reconstruction, and state-building in the Global South.