Citizenship in the Counter-Terrorist State: Learning from Security Practices in France and the UK
This comparative socio-legal project examines increasing state uses and (re)configurations of citizenship in national security contexts. Over the last few decades, the use of citizenship to curtail the rights of suspected terrorists and enhance exclusionary politics of belonging has become a common mode of state action. Concentrating on practices of citizenship deprivation and state politics of (non)repatriation in two European states (France and the UK), this research project seeks to expose the conditions behind the unravelling of citizenship’s acquis, and the effects of these policies on states’ political-legal foundations. While citizenship-security measures have received increasing scholarly attention in the fields of law, security studies, political theory, history, and sociology, few studies have connected these disciplines to achieve a deeper understanding of what motivates the proliferation of these measures and the specific challenges they pose to liberal democracies.
This post-doctoral project addresses this scholarly gap by focusing on the role played by more local and contingent factors (eg constitutional (supra) structures and imperial legacies) in shaping state responses to terrorism. More broadly, given that most citizenship-security measures strike at the heart of state legitimacy in so far as they target the primary modern concept legitimising state actions—the citizen—this research project aims to elucidate the underpinnings of fundamental state constructs (ie citizenship, security, and constitutions), and how these concepts interrelate. By using comparative and socio-legal methods to examine these concepts and to understand better what binds individuals and states together, this project not only addresses rising trends of fragmentation and internationalization captured by the second axis of the Department’s research matrix, but provides timely examples of complex challenges to fundamental rights, the rule of law, and democracy worldwide.
| Research outcome: | monograph and peer-reviewed journal articles (2023–2025) |
|---|---|
| Research focus: | 2. Trends: Internationalization, Digitalization, and Fragmentation |
| Project language: | English |
| Photo: | © Huge/Shutterstock.com |
Key publications
Book review | Research visit | Talks
Book review: GLOBALCIT Review Symposium of Allegiance, Citizenship and the Law: The Enigma of Belonging by Helen Irving. Response. 03/11/2023. Full text
Research visit: Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, University of Oxford, Trinity 2024.
Talks:
- Mechanisms for Compensation of Victims of Terrorism and National Narratives of Togetherness. Presented at EISA Conference, Potsdam, 09/2023.
- Citizenship in the Counter-Terrorist State. Presented at Democracy and Counter-Extremism Workshop, MPI-CSL, 06/2023.
- Regulating (Un)Belonging in Imperial Contexts. Presented at Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference, Ulster, 04/2023.
- Le retour de la déchéance de nationalité au Royaume-Uni. Presented at annual seminar Perdre sa nationalité, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, 03/2023.
- Victims and Survivors of Terrorism in the UK and France: New Security Constitutions. Presented at RIPPLES Project Workshop, Oslo, 02/2023.
