The sovereign citizen movement has grown beyond a nuisance and into an escalating national security challenge for many countries around the world. This policy brief outlines the problem, what should be done, the background landscape – including understanding the national security risks and harms – and policy recommendations.

Sovereign citizens are often dismissed as a collection of conspiratorial eccentrics operating on the fringes of society. However, at the core of the movement – which does not exist as a single, unified entity but rather a loose alignment of groups and individuals – is a collective rejection of the legitimacy of government authority and the democratic rule of law. Sovereign citizens do not believe they are subject to the same laws as everyone else and have formulated a fantastical conspiracy and pseudo-legal framework to justify this belief. 

Key findings

• The sovereign citizen movement has spread from the United States to more than 26 countries globally. Covid restrictions and digital networks accelerated its growth and created dangerous intersections with other conspiracy movements. 
• The sovereign citizen movement has grown beyond a nuisance, escalating into a national security challenge for many countries around the world. 
• The transnational threat of the movement requires multilateral intelligence coordination, online interventions to counter influencers, narratives and networks, and globally informed threat assessment.

Key policy recommendations

• Multilateral law enforcement and intelligence coordination
• Online interventions
• Globally informed threat assessment and training.