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Inpolitics,dual loyalty is loyalty to two separate interests that potentially conflict with each other, leading to aconflict of interest.Multiple citizenship has been considered in some countries as dual loyalty.[1]
DuringWorld War II, a number ofUnited States citizens ofJapanese,German, andItalianancestry, including some born in the U.S., were confined tointernment camps (seeInternment of Japanese Americans).[citation needed]
The loyalty of many Americans to the U.S. government was called into question during theCold War due to allegedCommunist sympathies, resulting in "witch-hunts" of various government officials, celebrities and other citizens (seeMcCarthyism).
"Dual loyalty" continues to be a concern of critics ofUS immigration policy, particularly in those states which borderMexico.[2]
During theimpeachment of Donald Trump in 2020, someRepublican Members ofCongress accusedLieutenant-ColonelAlexander Vindman of dual loyalty towardsUkraine due to hisUkrainian heritage.[3]
Roman Catholics are subject to thePope on religious matters. This has often perceived as dual loyalty by powers opposed to theHoly See.[citation needed]
During theEnglish Reformation, many importantEnglish andScottish Catholics, such asThomas More,Mary, Queen of Scots andEdmund Campion, were tried and executed for their alleged double loyalty to the Papacy and infidelity to the Crown.[citation needed]
DuringJohn F. Kennedy's campaign for andtenure as U.S. President, some opponents questioned whether a Roman Catholic President of the United States had a divided loyalty with respect to thePapacy andVatican City.[4]
Chinese Catholics have been forced by thegovernment of thePeople's Republic of China of substituting theRoman Catholic Church in China by theChinese Patriotic Catholic Association.[citation needed]
Jews who were part of theJewish diaspora have been accused of dual loyalty by theRomans in the 1st century, by theFrench in theDreyfus Affair in the late 19th century, and inStalin-eraSoviet Union in the 20th century.[5] Before the creation ofIsrael,anti-ZionistBritish Jews used the accusation against Zionist Jews in the UK.[6] While today some use the phrase in a "neutral and non-pejorative fashion,"John J. Mearsheimer andStephen M. Walt say this use can obscure the fact that home nations and Israel may have sharp political differences.[7]
The 1991Gulf War[5] and the2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq lead to such accusations against Jewishneoconservatives, vocal proponents of war againstIraq who were alleged by some critics of the Iraq War to have sought to undermine Arab nations hostile to Israel (e.g., by the term "Israel-firster").[8]
US presidentDonald Trump said in 2019 that that Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats were showing "either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty" towards Israel.[9]ADL chiefJonathan Greenblatt responded that charges of disloyalty “have long been used to attack Jews" and "It’s long overdue to stop using Jews as a political football."[9] In 2025 Trump attackedSenate minority leaderChuck Schumer, stating "As far as I'm concerned, he's become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He's not Jewish any more. He's a Palestinian."[10] Trump's remarks were condemned by rights groups asantisemitic andanti-Palestinian.[10]
Muslims living inWestern countries, especially during periods of heightened tensions between Muslim minorities and non-Muslims, such as afterSeptember 11, 2001, or during theJyllands-Posten cartoons controversy of 2005–2006, are sometimes accused of being more loyal to the Muslimummah than to their country.[11]
TheHindu minority in themajority-MuslimBangladesh has often been accused of dual loyalty to the neighbour state ofIndia by theBangladesh Nationalist Party[12] and even bySheikh Hasina[13][verification needed] who heads the largestpolitical outfit in Bangladesh hailingsecularism.[14]
TheAhmadiyya movement in Islam has been accused by some Muslims of dual loyalty to thestate of Israel, or less frequently theHindu-majoritystate of India.[15][16]
Thegovernment of theIslamic Republic of Iran has accused theBaháʼí Faith minority of having loyalty to foreign powers (seeIranian anti-Baháʼí conspiracy theories).[citation needed]
Some scholars refer to a growing trend oftransnationalism and suggest that as societies become moreheterogeneous andmulticultural, the term "dual loyalty" had increasingly become a meaninglessbromide. According to the theory of transnationalism, migration and other factors, including improved global communication, produce new forms of identity that transcend traditional notions of physical and cultural space. Nina Glick Schiller, Linda Basch, and Cristina Blanc-Szanton define a process by which immigrants "link together" their country of origin and their country of settlement.
The transnationalist view is that "dual loyalty" is a potentially-positive expression of multi-culturalism and can contribute to the diversity and strength of civil society. That view is popular in many academic circles, but others are skeptical of the idea. As one paper describes it,
On occasion, these imagined communities conform to the root meaning of transnational, extending beyond loyalties that connect to any specific place of origin or ethnic or national group. Yet what immigration scholars describe as transnationalism is usually its opposite... highly particularistic attachments antithetical to those by-products of globalization denoted by the concept of "transnational civil society" and its related manifestations.[17]
Beyond its usage in particular instances, the terms "dual loyalty" and "transnationalism" continue to be the subject of much debate. As one academic wrote:
Although the events of September 11th may have shaken some assumptions – at least in the United States – about the nature of transnational networks and their capacity to facilitate flows of people, goods, and ideas across borders, the terms "globalization" and "transnationalism" remain relatively stable, albeit frustratingly imprecise additions to the language of social sciences, including anthropology.[18]
