Terrorist Expatriation: All Show, No Bite, No Future

Abstract

Expatriation measures adopted by a handful of countries are ill-advised and possibly unlawful. Denationalisation of terror suspects clearly merits the attention of scholars and activists; after decades of disuse, states are now stepping back into the practice of forced expatriation. But denationalisation is increasingly anachronistic and toothless in the face of diminished conceptions of citizenship as an institution and changed locations of allegiance. The expatriation measures are empty gestures, a kind of counter-terror bravado to make up for the deficiency of more important material responses.