Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy
About this audiobook
Brought to you by Penguin.
An explosive new vision of geopolitics from two trailblazing political scientists
Deep beneath our feet, vast and sprawling, lies one of the most sophisticated empires the world has ever known. At first glance, it might not look like much - it is made up of fibre optic cables and obscure payment systems. But according to prominent political scientists Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman, this network is the key source of American power on the global stage, more significant than its military might.
Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has built a new empire underground, through telecommunications and financial networks that the entire world relies upon, which has allowed it to eavesdrop on other countries and isolate its enemies. And now, efforts by countries such as China and Russia to untether themselves from this coercive US-led system are turning the global economy into a battle zone.
A gripping and revelatory account of contemporary geopolitics, Underground Empire weaves together tales of economic conflict, shadowy surveillance technologies and covert infrastructure projects to explain how the world order has been brought to the brink of chaos - and how we might find a way back from the edge.
©2023 Abraham Newman (P)2023 Penguin Audio
About the author
Henry Farrell is the SNF Agora Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, 2019 winner of the Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Politics and Technology, and former Editor-in-Chief of The Monkey Cage at The Washington Post. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Farrell has written for publications such as The New York Times, The Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Boston Review, Aeon, New Scientist, and The Nation.
Abraham Newman (Author)
Abraham L. Newman is a professor at the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University. He is a 2022-2023 Berlin Prize winner and his work has been published in leading outlets like The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, Nature, Science, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Harvard Business Review, and Politico.
