Transnational Repression (TNR): A Game of Whack-A-Mole

Abstract

A man armed with an AK-47 rings the doorbell of a home in Brooklyn, New York; he is looking for a journalist and vocal critic of the Iranian government living there. A political opponent of the Nicaraguan regime is found dead in Honduras; his family suspects that he was lured to his death from his home in exile in Costa Rica. Aside from these blatant tactics of assassinations, assaults, and unexplained disappearances, Transnational Repression (TNR) also includes property damage, stalking, intimidation, digital threats, passport and document controls. When one form of TNR becomes less effective, State actors resort to other methods.