In the days after the filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered in Amsterdam by a Dutch citizen who carried Moroccan citizenship as well, Jan-Peter Balkenende, prime minister of the Netherlands, promised a "hard-line approach". It would include legislation to strip Dutch nationality from dual citizens who commit terrorist crimes. The policy reversal was sudden, as for decades the Dutch state had smiled on dual nationality. But such reversals are now the norm.

The five years since Germany passed its first laws permitting dual citizenship have been marked by frequent appeals from politicians to refocus on German national pride. Increasingly the US is insisting that its own dual nationals travel on their American passports.