I hope our conversation will discuss citizenship and the world, so that we do not seem parochial. But I also hope that we will address Canada, too, where citizenship may be the easiest to gain and the hardest to lose in the entire world. (I call this the incredible lightness of being Canadian, suggesting very weak attachment to the country. I am not sure it is something to boast about, although many politicians do. "Hotel Canada", Yann Martel called us.)

For me, the key challenge to be addressed is simple, and profound: Where should our sense of "citizenship" go from here? And how can we take it there?

"Citizenship" is a concept that does a lot of (opposing) work: it can create relationships and it can create tensions. It includes and it excludes. And, precisely because it is a concept about how people relate to one another, we ask it to do more work whenever our relationships come under strain (like right now, due to rapid and uneven technological change, environmental strains, economic inequality, demographic shifts, the list goes on).

Right now, "citizenship" is being used as the duct tape that holds communities together and as the saw to carve up humanity.

"We reject the ideology of globalism and accept the doctrine of patriotism," said Donald Trump in his speech to the UN General Assembly this September.

Is citizenship a strength? A necessary tie that binds us into a meaningful community? Citizenship is certainly relevant to politicians and diplomats, particularly in Europe, which is putting up walls, not taking them down. In many ways, globalization may continue apace, but that trend has not stopped countries from sinking into their own identities, exemplified by Brexit and Donald Trump's lively anti-mulitlateralism.

Or is citizenship passé in the post-modern era, a relic of the 19th century and its nation-state nationalism? To many philosophers and political scientists, who hope for a unitary world of common humanity, "citizenship" is an anachronism. "Citizenship" is a limited view of our place in the world, of history, of moral community. A limitation to be overcome.

Is there a healthy way out of this paradox of simultaneous inclusion and exclusion? And if so, how do we make it something real? Something lived out, in the world and in our communities?

A global challenge

What is the meaning of citizenship in today's world? How does it differ - on the lyrical scale of pride, purpose and patriotism - to be a citizen of one country as opposed to another? Is citizenship for some peoples of the world still an ember of empire and emblem of cultural superiority (as it was for the Greeks and Romans in the ancient world, the British and French centuries later, or for the Japanese, Germans and the Russians in the 20th century)? Or, is citizenship today a celebration of a post-imperial ideal - democracy, freedom, human rights, the rule of law, diversity, the free market - as it is, at its best, for a citizen of the United States or the European Union in the 21st century?

A neighbourhood challenge

"Citizenship" also has powerful consequences for how we relate to our neighbours. What are my rights and responsibilities toward "my fellow citizens"? What are the benefits citizenship confers and the obligations it demands? Does that answer vary depending on whether I was born into my citizenship or gained it through immigration? (What if I purchased my citizenship, through a government immigrant investor scheme?)