This presentation introduces findings from the European Research Council Starting Grant “Diasporas and Contested Sovereignty” directed by Dr. Maria Koinova at Warwick University (2012-2017). Why do conflict-generated diasporas mobilize in moderate and contentious ways? How do contexts aff ect such mobilizations? Koinova’s work evolving from this project challenges statist theories analysing the relationship between diasporas, home-states and host-states. The talk presents a novel conceptualization of four types of diaspora entrepreneurs based on their socio-spatial positionality, their linkages to Kosovo, Palestine, and Nagorno-Karabakh as de facto states, and a typological theory featuring causal pathways through which these diaspora entrepreneurs mobilize.