@article{524c7c024925407f9812bd5f05c653c4,
title = "Transnational governance and the centralization of state power in Eritrea and exile",
abstract = "During the Eritrean war of independence from Ethiopia (1961-91) the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front developed institutionalized transnational strategies that linked dispersed refugees and exiles to the nationalist movement in the Horn of Africa. Upon independence, these institutions and strategies were maintained for purposes of nation-state building. This article shows how state-directed transnationalism and deterriorialized patterns of governance have contributed to the centralization of state power in Eritrea and the development of civil society outside the country. Ethnographic and historical analysis of state and civil society institutions highlights how transnationalism enables new forms of political and social action while facilitating state power and repression, including human rights abuses, warfare and militarism. Moreover, it is suggested that the Eritrean state seeks to control transnational institutions in order to retain sovereignty and reject foreign, neo-liberal interventions associated with globalization.",
keywords = "Africa, Civil society, Governance, Human rights, Nationalism, Transnationalism",
author = "{Redeker Hepner}, {Tricia M.}",
note = "Funding Information: Research for this article was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and the Department of Anthropology and Graduate School at Michigan State University. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2005 American Anthropological Association meeting in Washington DC. Special thanks to John Gledhill, Andrea Behrends, Ken Sokoloff and the two anonymous reviewers for useful feedback. Additional gratitude is due to members of the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights. All arguments (and errors) are the sole responsibility of the author. Funding Information: Headquartered in Pretoria, EMDHR was founded by postgraduate students sent to study in South African universities as part of the government-planned Eritrean Human Resources Development Programme, funded by the World Bank in the amount of US$53 million. Coordinated by the University of Asmara (itself an acknowledged government institution), the project sent more than 600 mostly young men to various South African universities for training in specialized fields. The objective of the programme was to train professionals to fill {\textquoteleft}identified strategic gaps in Eritrea .. . includ[ing] the positions of civil services, teacher training institutions, and teaching posts in the University of Asmara{\textquoteright} (Mekonnen and Abraha 2004, p. 3; see also World Bank 1998). The students signed an agreement that upon the completion of their studies they would return, and departed for South Africa in 2000 and 2001.",
year = "2008",
month = mar,
doi = "10.1080/01419870701491986",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "31",
pages = "476--502",
journal = "Ethnic and Racial Studies",
issn = "0141-9870",
publisher = "Routledge",
number = "3",
}