40 Diaspora Activism and the Dynamics of Voice Keck and Sikkink 1998; Lipsky 1968). Diaspora members violate regimes’ monopolies on information and diffuse conflicts to the international arena by “drawing in the crowd” (Schattschneider 1960). They also work directly with their allies in the home-country to channel their allies’ claims outward and channel resources inward, including cash, material aid, and themselves as volunteers (Hockenos 2003). In these ways, diaspora members become impactful interventionists by engaging in partnerships across different arenas of civil society and governance, as well as by moving tangible and intangible resources across borders. But under what conditions do they become empowered to undertake and sustain these actions and sustain these forms of voice? Below, I argue that diaspora movements’ abilities to intervene in meaningful ways for rebellion and relief are dependent on two additive, conjoined conditions: (1) their capacities to convert resources to a shared politicized cause, and (2) the extent to which they gain geopolitical support from outside powerholders.9 When resource conversion and geopolitical support are sustained over time, diaspora activists gain the capacity to become auxiliary forces against authoritarianism by channeling voice and resources across different fields of action, for example, from the halls of the US Congress to the front lines in Benghazi, Libya. Without resource conversion and geopolitical support, diaspora activists will lack the relationships and structural conditions necessary to channel resources homeward. In cases such as these, their voice will be limited to demonstrating their solidarity from a distance. 1.5.1 Resource Conversion Studies of social movements have long argued that resources fundamentally shape activists’ capacities for action (Cress and Snow 2000; Jenkins and Eckert 1986; McAdam et al. 2001; McCarthy and Zald 1977). Within diasporas, loyalty to causes and conationals in the home-country can motivate members to allocate fungible and material resources to an insurgency. Activists may also convert their social capital to politicized causes, turning skills and knowledge into “social remittances” (Ayoub 2016; Levitt 1998), as when doctors volunteer in field hospitals and bilingual activists use their skills to broker between home-country dissidents and international donors (Adamson 2002, 2005; Guarnizo et al. 2003; Koinova 2012; Levitt 1998). Diaspora members’ network ties to persons on the ground are also vital, as these ties form the basis of working partnerships that enable the transfer of information, remittances, and mutual support (Moss 2020). While diaspora movements are often well-resourced compared to their homecountry counterparts, not all are equally endowed to meet their allies’ needs. 9 For additional work that draws attention to the importance of immigrant cohesion and hostcountry political institutions, see Ögelman et al. (2002). https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009272148 Published online by Cambridge University Press