Enemy of the state

This article is about the political and criminal term. For other uses, see Enemy of the state (disambiguation).

An enemy of the state is a person accused of certain crimes against the state, such as treason. Describing individuals in this way is sometimes a manifestation of political repression. For example, an authoritarian regime may purport to maintain national security by describing social or political dissidents as "enemies of the state". In other cases, the individual in question may have legitimately endangered the country and/or its population. For example, a double agent selling military or intelligence secrets could undermine a nation's security, and could therefore be considered an enemy not of just a person or entity within a state, but the state itself and all entities therein.^{[citation needed]}

Examples

Real-life

• Proscription in Ancient Rome
• The term "enemy of the people" in the Soviet Union during the period of Stalinism
• Jews in Nazi Germany, introduced by Adolf Hitler
• Carlos Lamarca, a Brazilian Army Captain who deserted to become the leader of a left-wing guerrilla against the military dictatorship; Lamarca was the only man in the History of Brazil to receive the status of traitor, being considered an "enemy of the state".
• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been designated as an "enemy of state" by the US government.

Fictional

• The fictional character Emmanuel Goldstein in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

See also

• Enemy of the people
• Murray Rothbard
• Public enemy