Underground Empire

How America Weaponized the World Economy

By: Henry Farrell, Abraham Newman

Narrated by: L. J. Ganser

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

Critic reviews

"Farrell and Newman's book is like an MRI or CT scan of recent world history, giving us a new and startling image of the global body politic, as clear as an X-ray. Cognitive mapping takes on a new aspect with their analysis, as they shift from the technological to the historical, showing both how this new nervous system of world power came to be, and how it could be put to better use than it is now. Given the intertwined complexities of our very dangerous polycrisis, we need their insights." (Kim Stanley Robinson, author of The Ministry for the Future)

"The sharpest and most striking analysis I've seen in years of the state the world's in, cunningly disguised as a user-friendly business book." (Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill)

interesting but bootlicking

the information shared and the facts exposed are indeed very interesting. the conclusions on the other hand, are very shallow. leviathan can't grow indefinitely. when the tick is larger than the bull things are bound to go wrong.

I recommend the book to whoever wants to understand how retarded governments have become and how their will to weaponize has no bounds.

I do feel like much that is extremely relevant was left out.

very different view of the world

very precise observation of how economies have changed drastically over the past 15 years into weapons - and how multinationals (and illicit cartels) have unwittingly become ammunition - combined with a monetary system that relies on US currency, it lays out why the world is how it is. There is some faint light at the end of the tunnel in the conclusion, but I would suggest that the probability any of that ever materialised would be zero. Pandora's box is opened and we are moving to fragmented economic zones with everyone Los Ng in the end.