Executive Summary

Citizenship, once considered a framework of belonging and participation, has increasingly become an instrument of coercion and control in the 21st century. While international norms assert the universality of human rights, in practice, governments and institutions differentiate sharply between the rights of humans, legal residents, and full citizens. This stratification has transformed citizenship into a political weapon—wielded to reward loyalty, suppress dissent, exclude outsiders, and manipulate demographic, economic, and ideological outcomes. The modern nation-state’s monopoly over legal identity enables it to use citizenship as a gatekeeping tool that determines not only access to rights and privileges, but also the right to exist within the polity itself.

I. The Evolution of Citizenship as an Instrument of Power

1. Classical Citizenship: The Polis and Participation

In ancient Greece and Rome, citizenship was tied to civic participation and military service. Rights were contingent on contribution to the state; outsiders and slaves had no voice. This exclusionary model made citizenship a reward for obedience and service, not a universal entitlement.

2. The Liberal Expansion: Enlightenment and Nation-State

The Enlightenment brought the language of “universal rights,” but states retained control over who counted as part of the people entitled to those rights. The French Revolution’s Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen maintained the distinction between the abstract “man” and the politically situated “citizen.” In practice, citizenship remained a form of inclusion that required state recognition.

3. The Modern Administrative State

The 20th century’s bureaucratic expansion transformed citizenship from moral belonging into a legal identity managed through passports, registries, and welfare systems. This bureaucratic control enabled states to weaponize citizenship both domestically and internationally—through denaturalization, statelessness, or conditional benefits.

II. Stratification of Rights in the Contemporary Order

1. Human Rights: Theoretical Universality, Practical Fragility

Human rights law claims to protect individuals regardless of nationality. However, enforcement mechanisms remain weak, allowing states to violate these rights with impunity. Refugees and stateless persons embody this gap: they have rights in theory but no enforcing sovereign in practice.

2. Immigrant Rights: Conditional Tolerance

Legal immigrants are subject to complex regimes of surveillance and dependency. They may work and pay taxes but lack political representation and full due process. Their continued residence often depends on employment or bureaucratic compliance, creating a permanent class of semi-citizens easily exploited by employers and governments alike.

3. Full Citizenship: Privilege, Not Equality

Citizenship grants participation, protection, and welfare—but these benefits are increasingly tiered by internal classifications. “Dual citizens,” “naturalized citizens,” and “second-class citizens” may experience differential treatment. Moreover, citizenship can be revoked under national security or loyalty laws, turning it into an instrument of discipline.

III. The Weaponization of Citizenship in Global Politics

1. Citizenship as a Domestic Disciplinary Tool

Governments use citizenship laws to enforce conformity. Authoritarian regimes revoke citizenship to silence dissidents or exile critics. Even democratic states employ denaturalization and passport revocation against political or religious minorities, using citizenship to define the moral boundaries of the state.

2. Citizenship as a Geopolitical Instrument

Citizenship grants have become a tool of soft power. Countries offer “golden passports” to attract investment or extend influence abroad. Conversely, some use denial of citizenship to disenfranchise ethnic minorities or delegitimize rival groups—as seen in Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya or the Dominican Republic’s policy toward Haitian descendants.

3. Weaponized Statelessness

Revocation or denial of citizenship creates stateless populations that can be displaced, exploited, or used as bargaining chips in international negotiations. The rise of biometric border systems and AI-driven population tracking has further entrenched this coercive capability.

IV. Economic Dimensions of Citizenship as a Weapon

1. Labor Stratification

Global labor markets depend on the controlled permeability of citizenship boundaries. Migrant laborers fill essential roles without the protections granted to citizens, ensuring economic flexibility for employers and governments while maintaining social hierarchy.

2. Welfare Nationalism

States justify limiting welfare benefits to citizens as a means of “protecting the national community,” effectively weaponizing scarcity to promote exclusionary politics. Welfare becomes a tool for national identity reinforcement, not universal social justice.

3. Citizenship Commodification

Investor visas and “citizenship by investment” programs commodify belonging, granting wealthy individuals the protections of a passport without the obligations of cultural integration. Citizenship thus becomes a tradable asset, devaluing civic loyalty while deepening inequality.

V. Digital Identity and the New Citizenship Regime

1. Data Sovereignty and Algorithmic Control

Digital citizenship, through online IDs and state-backed data registries, allows governments to extend control into virtual spaces. Citizenship is now tracked, scored, and verified algorithmically—creating new forms of exclusion through opaque decision-making systems.

2. Platform Nationalism

Social media platforms and digital ecosystems increasingly function as parallel sovereignties, imposing identity verification, censorship, and behavioral regulation. Citizenship is redefined by terms of service rather than constitutional guarantees.

3. Artificial Intelligence and the Citizenship of the Future

AI may further stratify populations, determining access to services and movement based on predictive profiling. “Algorithmic citizenship” risks transforming human rights into privileges granted by data systems rather than states.

VI. Ethical and Theological Implications

From a moral and theological standpoint, weaponized citizenship contradicts the biblical and philosophical concept of human dignity. The imago Dei—the idea that all humans bear inherent worth—stands in opposition to a political order that values lives based on passports. The prophetic tradition in scripture consistently condemns the oppression of “the stranger and the foreigner,” emphasizing that justice cannot depend on legal belonging alone.

VII. Policy and Reform Proposals

Codify the Right to Citizenship: Enshrine the right to nationality in enforceable international law to prevent statelessness. Decouple Welfare from Nationality: Implement residence-based benefits that recognize contribution over legal status. Transparency in Revocation and Naturalization: Require judicial oversight for any deprivation of citizenship. Recognition of Digital Statelessness: Protect individuals denied access to essential digital services due to nationality restrictions. Ethical Frameworks for Citizenship AI: Regulate algorithmic systems that determine rights of movement, access, or verification.

VIII. Conclusion

Citizenship, once envisioned as a covenant between the individual and the state, has become a mechanism of global stratification. It defines the boundaries of moral concern, enabling powerful states to manage populations, reward conformity, and punish dissent. To reclaim citizenship from its weaponized form, societies must reassert the primacy of human dignity over bureaucratic identity. Only when the rights of persons transcend the privileges of passports can citizenship return to being an instrument of community rather than control.