Political Transnationalism in Comparative Perspective: Anti-War Organizations of the Russian Diaspora in Germany and Turkey

• Applicant: Dr. Ekaterina Vorobeva
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 571961737

The proposed postdoctoral research project aims to contribute to academic debates on political transnationalism in a globalizing world. More specifically, it addresses existing knowledge gaps by analyzing how host country political regimes and diaspora agency co-constitute divergent forms of transnational activism. In this regard, the authoritarian context has been particularly overlooked. To fill this gap, the study focuses on the novel and largely unexplored case of anti-war Russian diaspora organizations. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine and military mobilization in Russia in 2022 triggered an unprecedented emigration of at least 700,000 people. Upon resettlement, many of these new Russian migrants established anti-war organizations that sought to influence domestic politics from abroad. These anti-war Russian diaspora organizations are located in states with different political systems, providing a great opportunity for cross-national comparison, a method that allows for new theoretical advances. Using the comparative case study methodology, this research project examines how the authoritarian regime in Turkey and the democratic context in Germany, through their political and discursive opportunity structures, interact with the strategic agency of anti-war Russian diaspora organizations to produce different organizational tactics and modes of transnational political participation. This study aims to add new, currently missing qualitative data to the debates, collected through social media and expert interviews with leaders or founders of anti-war initiatives. By integrating structural and agentic perspectives, the project is expected to improve our understanding of the formative factors of political transnationalism.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Turkey
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Birce Altiok; Professorin Dr. Saime Özcürümez