Geopolitics
Bidoon: Kuwait's Stateless Bedouin Population
The Bidoon (from bidoon jinsiyya, "without nationality") are an estimated 100,000-150,000 stateless residents of Kuwait, mostly descendants of nomadic Bedouins who failed to register during the 1961-1965 post-independence census and were locked out of citizenship ever since.
EUV as Geopolitical Chokepoint: US-China Export Controls and the TSMC Dependency
ASML's EUV lithography monopoly has become arguably the single most consequential chokepoint in the US-China technology decoupling. Dutch export licenses, coordinated with US policy, have blocked EUV sales to Chinese customers since 2019, while essentially all leading-edge EUV capacity remains concentrated in Taiwan and South Korea.
Kuwait Mass Citizenship Revocation Campaign (2024-2025)
Beginning in late 2024, Kuwait stripped citizenship from tens of thousands of nationals under a sweeping decree-law, with verified counts ranging from ~35,000 by December 2024 to as high as 200,000 by December 2025 — one of the largest denationalization campaigns since World War II.
Civil Death: What Happens When a State Revokes Citizenship
When a modern state strips citizenship, the cascading practical effects — invalid ID, lost healthcare, frozen bank accounts, voided property, terminated education, no right to travel or work — produce what observers call "civil death," the elimination of legal personhood while the person remains physically alive.