The Hidden Globe

Starred review from August 19, 2024
Journalist Abrahamian (The Cosmopolites) takes a revelatory look at a globe-spanning collection of “offshore jurisdictions,” “legal black holes,” and “free zones” that she argues form a “frontier” where nations “abdicate” their law-enforcing powers in aid of tax-evading elites or use loopholes to skirt their own laws. Abrahamian begins by delving into the histories of contemporary tax havens and “freeports” (starting with her hometown of Geneva, where since 1888 the Geneva Freeport has sheltered high-value items from taxation), but her scope is far broader; she also highlights ways in which new and evolving 20th- and 21st-century types of “liminal” spaces contribute to this “mercenary world order.” These include cruise ships used for “shipboard interdiction,” a form of legal gymnastics developed in the 1960s by the U.S. to house migrants in a borderless no-man’s land; and the recent divvying up of space by small wealthy countries like Tonga, now the sixth-largest owner of orbital slots for satellites. She also profiles figures deeply enmeshed in this world, including Claude de Baissac, a French businessman who advises developing nations on the creation of free zones. Providing poetic insight into what drew him to such spaces, an unapologetic de Baissac says, “It’s... the out-of-pattern-ness, and the idiosyncrasy”—a sentiment shared by Abrahamian, who perceptively analyzes these zones as neither “all good, nor all evil,” but as “cracks” that reveal how the world really works. It’s an impressive achievement.