Atossa A. Abrahamian, The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World

A globe shows the world we think we know: neatly delineated sovereign nations that grant or restrict their citizens’ rights. Beneath, above, and tucked inside their borders, however, another universe has been engineered into existence. It consists of thousands of extraterritorial zones that operate largely autonomously, and increasingly for the benefit of the wealthiest individuals and corporations.

Atossa A. Abrahamian traces the rise of this hidden globe to thirteenth-century Switzerland, where poor cantons marketed their only commodity: bodies, in the form of mercenary fighters. Over time, economists, theorists, statesmen, and consultants evolved ever more sophisticated ways of exporting and exploiting statelessness, in the form of free trade zones, flags of convenience, offshore detention centers, charter cities controlled by foreign corporations, and even into outer space. By mapping this countergeography, which decides who wins and who loses in the new global order—and helping us to see how it might be otherwise—The Hidden Globe fascinates, enrages, and inspires.

Join the New America Fellows Program for a conversation with 2024 New America Fellow Ben Mauk and 2024 New America Fellow Atossa A. Abrahamian about The Hidden Globe.

Speakers:
Atossa A. Abrahamian, @atossaaraxia
2024 New America Fellow
Author, The Hidden Globe

Ben Mauk, @benmauk
2024 New America Fellow

Copies of The Hidden Globe are available for purchase here through our bookselling partner Solid State Books.