Description
Despite considerable recent attention to the transnationalisation of repressive power within a range of fields, the literature continues to lack a solid understanding of the emergence of transnational repression within its historical context. For some researchers, contemporary practices of extraterritorial repression cannot be disassociated from regimes’ past actions: for instance, the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko immediately brings to mind the murder of Leon Trotsky. Others consider forms of transnational repression to be uniquely embedded in the rise of transnationalism and global interconnectedness: the use of specialised software by a range of autocracies today come in response to diverse forms of diaspora activism and global travel. This chapter seeks to conceptualise the emergence of transnational repression by taking a closer look at the evolution of the relationship between authoritarian states and their citizens — more precisely, it tracks the shift from a ‘closed-borders’ policy that was the norm under mercantilist or, more recently, communist regimes to an ‘open borders’ policy that has become commonplace in recent decades. Yet, as the rise of transnationalism and globalised forms of activism allow citizens abroad to continue participating in homeland politics from afar, sending states respond by developing a novel range of practices, including transnational repression. By tracing the evolution of autocracies’ approaches to their citizens’ mobility, the chapter offers a historical account of transnational repression’s natural evolution as an extension of the authoritarian state.
