Ralph Bunche Institute

Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The Ralph Bunche Institute offers a wealth of research and public programming on international affairs, human rights, and conflict resolution.

Mobility without membership: Do we need special passports for vulnerable groups? by John Torpey

Even the most casual observer of international affairs might reasonably think that the system for allocating people to countries – the institution of citizenship – is in disarray and prone to producing the worst possible outcomes. The Mediterranean and the southern US border both provide ongoing examples of human tragedy arising from the norm that each person in the world has one and only one true home, the place where they belong and from which long-term departure is anomalous. This norm emerged from the period following the First World War, when the European land empires collapsed and a great re-sorting of populations, borders, and international law ensued. A good deal of this re-sorting had to do with avoiding confusion about male citizens’ military obligations; if push came to bloody shove, countries and soldiers had to know where their loyalties lay.