Copying and Learning from Outsiders? Assessing Diffusion from Transnational Insurgents in the Chechen Wars

Abstract

Transnational terrorism is presumed to both foster and feed on intrastate conflicts. Yet few studies have examined the ways in which transnational insurgents — be they terrorists or not — matter. This article theorizes and traces the diffusion mechanisms through which transnational insurgents affect domestic challengers to the state, drawing on the literatures on transnationalism, social movements, and intrastate conflicts. Via mediated or relational diffusion, transnational insurgents can engender learning or emulation on the part of the domestic insurgents, in turn shaping domestic processes of mobilization — shifts in framing of a movement’s goals, tactical innovation, and resource mobilization. The argument is anchored in an empirical analysis of the Chechen wars.