Final Word from Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Jiří Dienstbier is the highest-ranking American in the Czech government. He has dual citizenship by dint of being born on U.S. soil to non-diplomatic parents. Under U.S. immigration law, there is an administrative premise that such a dual national does not intend to relinquish U.S. citizenship if he or she accepts non-policy level employment with a foreign government. Such a person need not submit a statement or evidence of his intent to retain U.S. nationality, since such an intent will be presumed. However, this premise does not exist in Dienstbier's case, because he has accepted policy-level employment. He's a minister. No U.S. consular officer will care about his lamebrained solutions to the paucity of women in politics, but what about ČSSD's pro-Russian tendencies in the Ukraine crisis? The more ČSSD turns them into official policy, the more Dienstbier risks having to choose which of his citizenships he prefers to retain. [Czech Republic United States of American Nato]
Glossary of difficult words
by dint of - by means of;
U.S. national - a citizen of the United States or a person, though not a citizen, who owes permanent allegiance to the U.S.;
to relinquish - to give up; to voluntarily cease to keep or claim;
lamebrained - stupid;
paucity - the presence of something only in small or insufficient quantities or amounts; scarcity.