Underground Empire

A deeply researched investigation reveals how the United States is like a spider at the heart of an international web of surveillance and control, woven through globe-spanning networks such as fiber optic cables and obscure payment systems.

America's security state first began to weaponize these channels after 9/11, when they seemed necessary to combat terrorism, but now they are a matter of course. Multinational companies like AT&T and Citicorp build hubs to generate profit, which the government can also use as choke points. Today's headlines about trade wars, sanctions, and technology disputes are merely tremors hinting at far greater seismic shifts beneath the surface.

Slowly but surely, Washington has transformed the most vital pathways of the world economy into tools of domination over foreign businesses and countries, whether rivals or allies, allowing the U.S. to maintain global supremacy. In the process, we have sleepwalked into a new struggle for empire. Using true stories, field-defining findings, and original reporting, Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman illustrate how the most ordinary aspects of the post-Cold War economy have become realms of subterfuge and coercion, and what we must do to ensure that this new arms race doesn't spiral out of control.