Celebrity Refugees and Foreign Policy: The Politics of Fame in International Protection

Celebrity refugees are a foreign policy tool whereby states grant international protection to famous artists, scientists, or politicians in exchange for some sort of strategic value in international relations. Celebrity refugees bring different types of strategic value—intellectual or ideological capital—and serve the role in propaganda to affirm domestic legitimacy, gain strategic advantage, and embarrass enemy regimes. This article develops an analytical framework for understanding why states offer international protection to celebrities. We apply our theory to four historical cases—Enrico Fermi, Robert F. Williams, Maxim Shostakovich, and Julian Assange—to understand the impact of their strategic value for both the host state and celebrity refugees. The utility of celebrity refugees for states is a global strategy that is not constrained to the Cold War period, as one might initially expect. Ultimately, both powerful and smaller states can protect celebrity refugees to bolster their domestic legitimacy, gain scientific or military advantage, and embarrass their rivals.