Beyond Law: Alternative Mechanisms for Reigning in Weaponised Citizenship Noora Lori* In her opening essay, Neha Jain eloquently outlines the problem of weaponised citizenship and poses the question of whether (and how) international law might be used to restrict oppressive nationality attribution.230 I first briefly reiterate the political and normative stakes of this important debate to explain why states weaponise nationality, emphasising the strategic advantages this tactic provides to political elites across world regions and regime-types. In response to previous responses that question whether international law is indeed the most fitting mechanism for reigning in oppressive nationality attribution, I consider alternative ways how states can be incentivized or coerced into modifying their behaviour in realms that are considered key domains of sovereignty. I take the baton from Bauböck and heed his warning about the destructive potential of weaponised citizenship in the context of new geopolitical arrangements and deepening global interdependencies.231 I suggest that asymmetrical power arrangements and global interdependence are precisely what can be leveraged to reign in cases of weaponised citizenship. The Problem of Weaponised Citizenship The weaponisation of citizenship occurs when states strategically use forced nationality attributions to control access to membership and mobility rights. As Jain explains, this oppressive tactic occurs on both the individual and collective levels—states can weaponise citizenship to ‘denude an individual of rights they would have enjoyed’ as well as ‘threaten or destabilise vital interests of other states.’232 To illustrate how forced nationality attribution operates as a form of inter-state coercion, Knott carefully explains how Russia’s extraterritorial passporitisation techniques were used to justify annexation and conflict by claiming to protect co-ethnic communities ‘whether or not such external co-ethnic communities view themselves as needing, or consenting to, protection.’233 While Spiro argues that the consent of the individuals whose citizenship status is being changed is the key factor for determining whether a case of nationality attribution is weaponised, the forum also discusses how apparently voluntary extraterritorial naturalizations (e.g. in Transnistria, Abkhasia, South Ossetia) are instances of weaponisation because of their destabilising impact across borders.234 Since the previous responses discuss extra-territorial naturalization practices to illustrate how citizenship is weaponised across borders, it is worth discussing how these practices also factor into domestic politics. To do so, I expand the focus of this forum on forced nationality attributions and include a brief discussion of the related phenomenon of denaturalization, drawing a link between this debate and insights from a previous forum to make two points about the domestic implications of weaponised citizenship.235 First, access to citizenship is weaponised by political elites to fulfil their own political or economic domestic interests. Second, this tactic has been used by states to disproportionately target minority groups within their territories, typically by associating those groups with security threats. In the example of what Jain calls “zombie citizenship,”236 the federal government of the United Arab Emirates attained passports from the Union of Comoros for ethnic minorities in the UAE. This outsourcing agreement— which I have previously referred to as “offshore citizenship”—does not provide the passport recipients * Pardee School of Global Studies 230 Jain 2022. 231 Bauböck R. (2023), ‘Weapons of Massive Deception: Defusing the Destructive Potential of Citizenship in a New Geopolitical Era’, GLOBALCIT, Weaponized Citizenship: Should international law restrict oppressive nationality attribution? - Page 9 of 12 - Globalcit (hereinafter ‘Bauböck 2023’). 232 Jain 2022. 233 Knott 2022. 234 Spiro 2023. 235 Macklin A. and Bauböck R. (eds.), The Return of Banishment: Do the New Denationalisation Policies Weaken Citizenship?. EUI Working Paper RSCAS 2015/14. 236 Jain 2022. European University Institute 42