T H E G L O B A L S TAT E O F C I T I Z E N S H I P including acts of terrorism and affiliation with terrorist organisations. A troubling development is the strategic use of citizenship deprivation by authoritarian regimes to suppress political dissent and tighten control. In 2023, Nicaragua initiated a process to amend its constitution in order to enable the revocation of citizenship for individuals deemed “traitors to the homeland.” Despite the fact that the amendment only formally came into force in 2025, more than 200 individuals – primarily political dissidents –lost their citizenship on this ground, and many of them were made stateless. In 2024, Kuwait introduced sweeping amendments that allow for citizenship loss in cases of fraudulent conduct, crimes involving “moral turpitude”, or where the state’s interests or security are deemed at risk. Kuwaiti nationality law also restricts dual citizenship and permits revocation if an individual acquires or retains foreign citizenship upon naturalisation. Within a six-month period, roughly 42 thousand people reportedly lost their citizenship under these provisions. The crackdown occurred during a suspension of parliament and is reported to restrict certain groups’ access to political rights and Kuwait’s welfare state benefits. Many citizenship stripping laws are framed in ambiguous and broad terms, citing “acts against the interests of the state” or conduct perceived as showing “disloyalty or disaffection,” without clearly defining their scope. This ambiguity fosters significant legal uncertainty and enables states to intensify enforcement or reinterpret the application of these laws without needing to amend legislation, which makes it more difficult to monitor developments. Instrumentalising citizenship policies for presumed security purposes can lead to highly questionable outcomes that frequently contradict the international legal obligations of states as well as international standards. By closely monitoring developments of these provisions, the GLOBALCIT data provides a tool for researchers interested in analysing global trends and regional variation. In addition, our data on global patterns and trends over time can inform public advocacy addressing the pervasive concerns about states’ adherence to international standards. 29