Can the Blacks Do for Africa What the Jews Did for Israel?

African Americans and the new world order

“…The Poles and the Jews have been active and successful: the blacks quiescent and ineffective. 13 The assertion was not quite accurate when made, and in 1992 it is substantially less so. Although African Americans had not had significant, visible impact on any aspect of U.S. foreign policy up to the early 1970s, and did not often actively seek to influence policy, they were hardly quiescent.…”

“…2 Occasionally, blacks have done so, as in the case of South Africa, where they forced major changes in U.S. policy that contributed directly to the collapse of apartheid. This essay argues that, while such occasional country-or regionspecific interest will continue, blacks have broader interests as well that require engagement with the full range of U.S. foreign policy concerns.…”

Remapping the Boundaries of `State' and `National Identity': Incorporating Diasporas into IR Theorizing

“…In addition to the above, there is a body of research on the political activities of diasporic communities which includes both newer work on diasporas as political actors and earlier work that examined the impact of migrant interest groups and ethnic lobbies on American foreign policy (see Huntington, 1997;Mathias, 1981;Tucker et al, 1990;Uslaner, 1991;Weil, 1974; see also Shain, 1999, for diasporas as promoters of US interests abroad). While earlier work treated diasporic communities as 'ethnic groups' operating within the state, the increasing politicization that many ethnic communities have undergone in recent years and the growing awareness of the importance of diasporic ties with the sending country have encouraged researchers to also pay attention to these groups' links with their countries of origin, a dimension that was largely ignored until recently (Constas and Platias, 1993;Hockenos, 2003;Shain and Barth, 2003;Winland, 1995;Ostergaard-Nielsen, 2002).…”