Weapons of mass migration: forced displacement, coercion and foreign policy

Public Seminar Series, Trinity term 2014. Seminar by Professor Kelly M. Greenhill (Tufts University). Recorded on 7 May 2014 at the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford. In this seminar, Professor Greenhill examines an understudied, yet relatively common, bargaining tool and method of persuasion: namely, the use of migration and refugee crises as non-military instruments of state-level coercion. Who employs this unconventional weapon, how often it succeeds and fails, how and why this kind of coercion ever works, and how targets may combat this unorthodox brand of coercion will be explored. Contemporary cases, including Libya, Syria, North Korea, Cuba and Kosovo are discussed, as are the sometimes-devastating humanitarian implications of engineered migration crises. The talk is drawn in part from Professor Greenhill's book of the same name, which received the International Studies Association's Best Book of the Year Award.