When dual citizenship becomes conflict of interest | TheHill

Making the case for disclosure in the US political system of dual nationality and potential conflicts of interest:

Current entries on the Internet contain a number of undocumented assertions as to which members of Congress and senior officers are dual citizens.  Without reliable data, however, Americans can only speculate on which senators and representatives may have divided national loyalties.

The lack of transparency regarding citizenship erodes trust in government, raising credibility doubts where there should be none, and allowing some apparent conflicts of interest to continue undetected.

When a senator, representative or senior U.S. official speaks out, submits bills or determines policy on an issue of importance to a foreign country of which that member or official (or judge) has the tie of citizenship, their constituents and the U.S. public at large should at least be able to assess whether such views or actions are influenced by the divided loyalty.

Since they don’t involve national loyalty, religion and ethnicity seldom raise conflict issues.  Moreover, they are generally matters of public record.

By contrast, dual citizenship creates conflict of interest through divided loyalties. Thus it would seem reasonable to require that dual citizen members of Congress, the judiciary and the executive  be required to renounce citizenship in another country as a condition of public service.

Both Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and former Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-Minn.) recently received wide press coverage when they renounced their Canadian and Swiss nationalities, respectively.

Yet the media and government watchdog organizations have largely ignored the potential conflict of interest inherent in dual citizenship.  Why the neglect of this issue?  Shouldn’t members of Congress (and federal judges and executive branch officials) at least be required to disclose their citizenship in another country?

Even if our legal system continues to allow dual citizens to serve in high positions of the U.S. government, it should require them to recuse themselves from participating in decisions or policy debates that relate to their second country.

As a first step, the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress should begin to include citizenship (along with the current listings of party breakdown, age, occupations, education, Congressional service, religion, gender, ethnicity and military service) in its published profiles of each new Congress.

Americans can then decide whether our legislators (and possibly federal judges and senior government officials as well) should be required to renounce their citizenship in another country as a condition of public service.

A bit simplistic to assume that dual nationality always means dual loyalties. In some cases, it is merely pragmatic (travel to country of origin may require citizenship), in others it is to provide additional opportunities for their children (e.g., EU citizenship).

It is more the specific behaviours that call into question loyalty.

Serving in another military, running for office in another country are more substantive than formal citizenship of another country.

When dual citizenship becomes conflict of interest | TheHill.