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The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World Audiobook
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Publisher Description
Borders draw one map of the world; money draws another. A journalist’s riveting account exposes a parallel universe that has become a haven for the rich and powerful.
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 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.
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"“Fascinating—reads like a novel yet packs a policy punch for anyone interested in global migration, licit and illicit corporate networks, legal fictions and realities, and the ongoing mutation of the nation-state. Read it, share it, and above all, reflect on the paradox that while we grapple with how to exert physical control over the digital world, we ignore the creation of vast new legal and physical spaces in plain sight."
— Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America, and Professor and Dean Emerita, Princeton University
Quotes
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The Hidden Globe eloquently verifies a long-inarticulate suspicion: that our world has been invisibly remade. Traveling to different parts of the world, Abrahamian describes insidiously interconnected global regimes of inequality and injustice. In the process, she boldly renews our sense of reality and brilliantly illuminates our political impasse.
— ankaj Mishra, author of The Age of Anger -
Although we imagine the world as divided neatly into nation-states, it is in fact strewn with loopholes, islands, freeports, and zones where the usual laws don’t apply. Such places don’t draw attention, but they matter enormously. Atossa Abrahamian is the ideal guide—fluid, sharp-eyed, and thoughtful—to this hidden landscape.
— Daniel Immerwahr, author of How to Hide an Empire -
The Hidden Globe eloquently verifies a long-inarticulate suspicion: that our world has been invisibly remade. Traveling to different parts of the world, Abrahamian describes insidiously interconnected global regimes of inequality and injustice. In the process, she boldly renews our sense of reality and brilliantly illuminates our political impasse.
— Pankaj Mishra, author of The Age of Anger -
"A revelatory look at a globe-spanning collection of 'offshore jurisdictions,' 'legal black holes,' and 'free zones'. . . .Abrahamian begins by delving into the histories of contemporary tax havens. . .but her scope is far broader. . .an impressive achievement.
— Publishers Weekly, STARRED review -
“Fascinating—reads like a novel yet packs a policy punch for anyone interested in global migration, licit and illicit corporate networks, legal fictions and realities, and the ongoing mutation of the nation-state. Read it, share it, and above all, reflect on the paradox that while we grapple with how to exert physical control over the digital world, we ignore the creation of vast new legal and physical spaces in plain sight.
— Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America, and Professor and Dean Emerita, Princeton University -
The Hidden Globe eloquently verifies a long-inarticulate suspicion: that our world has been invisibly remade. Traveling to different parts of the world, Abrahamian describes insidiously interconnected global regimes of inequality and injustice. In the process, she boldly renews our sense of reality and brilliantly illuminates our political impasse.
— Pankaj Mishra, author of The Age of Anger -
Although we imagine the world as divided neatly into nation-states, it is in fact strewn with loopholes, islands, freeports, and zones where the usual laws don’t apply. Such places don’t draw attention, but they matter enormously. Atossa Abrahamian is the ideal guide—fluid, sharp-eyed, and thoughtful—to this hidden landscape.
— Daniel Immerwahr, author of How to Hide an Empire -
“Sharply observed. . .[Abrahamian's] well-researched, engrossing work manages the minutiae of several fields, including telecommunications, maritime law, and fine art, to stitch together a multilayered tale of how privilege works to protect itself. Important documentation of how mechanisms favored by the 1 percent increase global inequalities.
— Kirkus Reviews -
A revelatory look at a globe-spanning collection of 'offshore jurisdictions,' 'legal black holes,' and 'free zones'. . . .Abrahamian begins by delving into the histories of contemporary tax havens. . .but her scope is far broader. . .an impressive achievement.
— Publishers Weekly, STARRED review
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About Atossa Araxia Abrahamian
Bernadette Dunne is the winner of more than a dozen AudioFile Earphones Awards and has twice been nominated for the prestigious Audie Award. She studied at the Royal National Theatre in London and the Studio Theater in Washington, DC, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center and off Broadway.