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This thesis provides an account of the role played by discourses of dehumanisation in mobilising genocidal violence. While scholars of ethnic conflict, social psychology, and genocide have extensively studied dehumanisation, this has focused on it as a phenomenon that reduces moral restraints on violence. Other forms of dehumanisation, however, do something different, designating target populations as an existentially threatening, monstrous, or contaminating threat, and thus a valid target for 'defensive' violence. What literature has addressed this latter understanding has been limited by its lack of (political, historical, and societal) contextualisation of these discourses - where were they articulated? By whom? To what audiences? - as well as limited examination of their internal logics. To address this, I engage in an extended archival examination of three main case studies (Germany, Rwanda, and Serbia), followed by several smaller cases to demonstrate the broader applicability of my model. By building an extensive corpus of examples of dehumanisation, locating them in their historical and social contexts, and tracing their spread and impact, I develop a clearer account of the role of dehumanisation in genocidal violence. I find that this form of securitising, threat-designating dehumanisation was remarkably consistent across a wide range of cases, and played a significant role in shaping violence. Distinctive views of the enemy - portraying them as diseases and vermin, existentially threatening to the body politic but also easily destroyed or 'cured' - were repeated across all three cases, and linked with distinctive violent responses. Based on the correlation between the incidence of dehumanisation and the forms of genocidal violence, as well as relevant social psychology scholarship, I argue that it was effective in promoting campaigns of mass extermination. I conclude by considering how these findings might contribute to genocide early warning regimes, by providing an account of a common precursor to genocide.

African governments and their political structures are now increasingly constituted of returning diaspora. The thesis explores the international and domestic political processes through which diaspora return to politics and influence the Somali-speaking subnational and national administrations of the Republic of Somaliland, Puntland Member State of Somalia, and the Federal Government of Somalia from 1985 until 2018. These processes are traced across the three contexts and chronologically from the irredentist fight of the 1980s, through state formation and reconstruction processes after 1991, and up to contemporary politics. In each context, different historical and conflict legacies, state formation processes (including relationships with the international system) and internal elite pacts shape the opportunity structures for diaspora politicians to contest and influence politics. Divergences emerge in trends in leadership succession, including the rise and fall of diaspora administrations, as well as in the forms of alliance building and local resistance that emerge against periods of diaspora rule. This thesis is particularly concerned with how international actors and statebuilding agendas may confer undue legitimacy on diaspora politicians and empower them to challenge existing political arrangements and systems of clan governance. As such, this thesis contributes to key academic debates about clan politics and limited stateness, the symbolic valence of expertise, and the politics of state formation.

A note on terminology. Throughout, the term 'Holland' is used to apply only to the province of that name. Similarly, where 'Flanders' appears in the text it applies only to that province, although commonly used by contemporaries to designate the Netherlands as a whole. 'Dutch' is employed as a convenient shorthand for the inhabitants of the rebel provinces, but 'Belgian' has been avoided for the southern provinces because it implies a predetermined racial/ national division in the Netherlands. 'Spanish' is used generally to describe the government and the armed forces operating against the United Provinces even though, in the armed forces, Spaniards were themselves a small minority. This is justified by the commanding position held by the servants of Madrid during this period. Rather than adopt a slavish consistency with place names, we have employed forms familiar to English speakers, such as The Hague (Den Haag), Antwerp (Antwerpen), Flushing (Vlissingen). Elsewhere, the form familiar to the inhabitants has been employed (Mechlin for Malines, Liege for Luik). Dates are given according to the 'New Style' except where otherwise stated, or where it is unclear which style is being used.