Silenced and Split 72 conflict transmission, working in tandem with transnational repression in some cases, undermined anti-regime diasporas’ capacities to mobilize for political change before the Arab Spring. 3.1 transnational repression The Gaddafi and Assad regimes deterred dissent in the diaspora through their institutions, agents, and informant networks in different ways (see Table 3.1). By imposing costs on activists abroad and on relatives at home, the threats posed by transnational repression had numerous, interrelated effects. First, they propagated fear, mistrust, and division between conationals in the wider diaspora community. Second, they limited or foreclosed individuals’ abilities to speak openly about home-country politics. Third, they relegated public antiregime mobilization to what were considered to be “fringe” exile groups. Individuals seeking to protect their loved ones in, or their access to, the home-country were thereby obliged to abstain from criticizing the regime in word and deed. These effects significantly constrained Libyans’ and Syrians’ transnational activism and shaped the character of their organizations and associations abroad. The most direct form of transnational repression – lethal retribution and attempted assassinations – impacted the Libyan diaspora in the United States and Britain the most. For Gaddafi, dissidents abroad were enemies of the state warranting elimination, and characteristic of his braggadocio, he did not keep table 3.1. Typology of transnational repression Lethal retribution Proxy punishment Threats Surveillance Exile Withdrawing scholarships The actual or attempted assassinations of dissidents abroad by regime agents or proxies. The harassment, physical confinement, and/or bodily harm of diaspora members’ relatives in the home-country as a means of information-gathering and retribution against dissidents abroad. Verbal or written warnings directed at diaspora members, including the summoning of individuals by regime officials to their institutions for this purpose. The gathering and sending of information about conationals to the state security apparatus by informant networks comprised of regime agents, loyalists, and coerced individuals. The direct and indirect banishment of dissidents (or suspected dissidents) from the home-country, including when the threat of harm and imprisonment prevents activists from returning. The rescinding of students’ state benefits for refusing to participate in regime-mandated actions or organizations abroad. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009272148 Published online by Cambridge University Press