Virtual Diasporas and global problem solving project | |||||||||||
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Global diaspora communities are an
increasingly important actor in international
conflict and cooperation. Today information communication technologies
bind transnational diaspora communities with their homeland, facilitate
new and efficient economic networks in both the host and home countries,
and increase identity and belonging to a greater transnational community.
Yet other observers contend that virtual diaspora networks are an
emerging source of global conflict as they facilitate transnational
terrorist and criminal activity, finance wars in “home states,” and
most importantly, cultivate divisive and fragmenting nationalism
throughout the online diaspora community. How
are we to balance a growing need for national security and increased
intelligence gathering with the need to respect the privacy, civil
liberties, and freedom of non-state transnational networks? How will this
first ever “war against networks” impact transnational diaspora
communities? How can states
work with these global diaspora networks to further their aims?
The Nautilus Institute is beginning the process of understanding these challenges with the Virtual Diasporas and Global Problem Solving Project. The project, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, examined the growing impact of global diasporas, and their use of information technologies, on international conflict and cooperation. Specifically, this effort explored a number of issues ranging from global diaspora communities as an increasing source of conflict to the positive contributions that emerging cosmopolitan diaspora organizations are making to global problem-solving.
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....more about the project |