Lindsey N. Kingston an extension of the colonial practices, a replacement of one civic status with another – domestic dependent, ward, or U.S. citizen – and a reflection of the American colonial ambivalence vis-à-vis Native subjects.’84 The acquisition of American citizenship went hand in hand with the privatization (and loss) of Indigenous lands and the erosion of tribal sovereignty. (If cultural destruction was indeed recognised by the UN Genocide Convention, the forced naturalisaton of Indigenous peoples would surely count as part of that genocidal process.) These issues remain central for Indigenous peoples who demand respect for treaty rights, recognition of inherent rights to self-determination, and the return of political and economic control of native lands via the “Land Back” movement.85 The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico is another site where citizenship has been used to justify American empire and to control strategic resources, offering a hollow legal status for Brown/Spanish-speaking people without the rights and protections associated with legal nationality. The people of Puerto Rico have historically existed as what Sam Erman calls “almost citizens” – neither citizens nor aliens, living on an island that is deemed neither foreign nor domestic.86 The Jones Act of 1917 provided for the collective naturalisation of residents of Puerto Rico at a time when the new Panama Canal increased the island’s strategic value – and while U.S. President Woodrow Wilson promoted democracy abroad as Congress defended colonialism at home. ‘To mitigate the embarrassment of having permanent noncitizen subjects, Congress legislated,’ writes Erman.87 ‘[F]or Puerto Rico it proposed a collective naturalisation that foreclosed independence and brought no new rights.’ Although Puerto Ricans acquired birthright U.S. citizenship in 1941, they have not enjoyed the same rights as Americans living on the mainland, including equal voting rights and representation in federal government. In calls for equal recognition before the law, Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán writes that Puerto Rico remains a place where ‘inequality allows for U.S. citizenship to become simultaneously a source of agency for the colonized and a mechanism of oppression for the colonizer.’88 These instances of shallow American citizenship highlight the importance of what I term “functioning citizenship” – that is, citizenship requiring ‘an active and mutually-beneficial relationship between the state and the individual.’89 This perspective asks us to look beyond mere legal status and to question how we recognise rights holders; citizenship is not just legality and identity documents, but rather a relationship that may or may not be fully functioning in rights-protective ways. Once we stop equating citizenship with belonging and worthiness, we also must acknowledge that political membership cannot be proven with an identity card or contained by state borders. More attention to functioning citizenship is partly what I believe Džankić is calling for when she writes that citizenship will remain a weapon as long as people are ‘insufficiently educated on the value of membership – not as nationality but as belonging to a political community of fellow human beings.’90 Her own story of having her nationality changed four times without her consent, and now living without voting rights anywhere in the world, is a powerful example of what a lack of functioning citizenship looks like in “real” life. How can we solve the problem of weaponised citizenship in a system where legal nationality holds such power – and where “persistent outlaw” states have ensured their control over the provision of such status? Like Džankić, I am doubtful that international law can adequately address the weaponisation of citizenship and yet I struggle to offer any realistic alternative solutions.91 The international community privileges citizenship – to access vital documentation, to enjoy fundamental rights, to hold legal identity – but at the same time affords powerful states almost unchecked authority over it. 84 Stanciu, C. (2021), ‘Native Acts, Immigrant Acts: Citizenship, Naturalization, and the Performance of Civic Identity during the Progressive Era’, Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 20(2), 252-276. 85 See Land Back’s work at LANDBACK - Building lasting Indigenous sovereignty.. 86 Erman, S. (2018), Almost Citizens: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Constitution, and Empire (Studies in Legal History), Cambridge University Press. 87 Id. 88 Font-Guzmán J. (2015), Experiencing Puerto Rican Citizenship and Cultural Nationalism, Palgrave Macmillan. 89 Kingston, L. N. (2014), ‘Statelessness as a Lack of Functioning Citizenship’, Tilburg Law Review, 19(1-2), 127-135. 90 Džankić 2022. 91 Id. 17 Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies