The annexation of populations: a new state strategy?

Thesis

This thesis aims to analyse the extraterritorial naturalisation practices of Russia and Hungary to determine the states’ motivation and the domestic and international consequences of the policies. At the individual level, it remains a state’s legal prerogative to confer citizenship upon whomever it wishes consensually. When done to an extraterritorial collective, the practice can and has caused disputes between states. Russian and Hungarian state officials defend the practice by arguing the conferral of citizenship is a legal manifestation of a responsibility to privilege co-nationals, wherever they may reside. While this position cannot be entirely dismissed, it is argued that it lacks sufficient explanatory power and that strategic and instrumental motivations are fundamental to the practice. Research in International Relations has so far neglected to investigate citizenship policies from a strategic foreign policy perspective, a shortcoming this thesis seeks to address. Using a case study qualitative research design involving fifty-two interviews with political stakeholders and an official state discourse analysis, it shows that Russia and Hungary have made international and domestic gains by naturalising targeted populations in their contiguous states, which can be metaphorically described as an annexation of populations. The official state discourse from the leaders of Russia and Hungary relating to external populations and territory are found to exhibit similarities. This thesis offers an emotive analogue that the extraterritorial naturalisations are justified as a means to rectify perceived injustices at historical losses caused by external rivals. The significance of this study is that it informs our theoretical understandings of key concepts of International Relations by focussing on the implications of extraterritorial naturalisation on sovereign territorial integrity, the nation, (dual) citizenship and will interest constructivists and realists and those interested in international law.

Authors: Wrighton, S

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Citizenship; Realism; Constructivism; Politics; Power politics; State strategy; Hungary; Nationalism; Ethnicity; Extraterritorial naturalisation; Russia; Foreign policy; International Relations; Identity
• Subjects: International law and human rights; Realism; Constructivism; Naturalization; Dual nationality; State governments and international relations; International relations; Nationalism; Strategy; Politics and government; Citizenship