Books
Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy, by Henry Farrell & Abraham Newman
2024, Henry Holt in the US and Allen Lane / Penguin in the UK
Selected Reviews
Description
Arthur Ross Book Award, Council on Foreign Relations, Bronze Medal
Shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize
Named a best book of the year by Foreign Affairs and Responsible Statecraft
A deeply researched investigation that reveals how the United States is like a spider at the heart of an international web of surveillance and control, which it weaves in the form of globe-spanning networks such as fiber optic cables and obscure payment systems
America’s security state first started to weaponize these channels after 9/11, when they seemed like necessities to combat terrorism―but now they’re a matter of course. Multinational companies like AT&T and Citicorp build hubs, which they use to make money, but which the government can also deploy 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 turned the most vital pathways of the world economy into tools of domination over foreign businesses and countries, whether they are 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 show 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.
Co-Author Abraham Newman
Abraham L. Newman is a professor at the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University. Known for his research on the politics generated by globalization, he serves as a frequent commentator on international affairs, appearing on news programs ranging from Al Jazeera to Deutsche Welle and NPR. His work has been published in leading outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Nature, Science, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Harvard Business Review, and Politico.
Further Reading on: Weaponized Interdependence
Chained to Globalization – with Abraham Newman
Interview with economist Tyler Cowen on Weaponized Interdependence, Big Tech, and Playing with Ideas
Weaponized Interdependence: How Global Economic Networks Shape State Coercion – with Abraham Newman
Weaponized Interdependence – with Abraham Newman
The Uses and Abuses of Weaponized Interdependence, edited by Daniel Drezner, Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman
2021, Brookings Institution
Selected Reviews
Description
How globalized information networks can be used for strategic advantage
Until recently, globalization was viewed, on balance, as an inherently good thing that would benefit people and societies nearly everywhere. Now there is growing concern that some countries will use their position in globalized networks to gain undue influence over other societies through their dominance of information and financial networks, a concept known as weaponized interdependence.
In exploring the conditions under which China, Russia, and the United States might be expected to weaponize control of information and manipulate the global economy, the contributors to this volume challenge scholars and practitioners to think differently about foreign economic policy, national security, and statecraft for the twenty-first century. The book addresses such questions as: What areas of the global economy are most vulnerable to unilateral control of information and financial networks? How sustainable is the use of weaponized interdependence? What are the possible responses from targeted actors? And how sustainable is the open global economy if weaponized interdependence becomes a default tool for managing international relations?
Co-Editors Daniel Drezner & Abraham Newman
Daniel W. Drezner is professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Abraham L. Newman is a professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and Government Department, Georgetown University, and director of the Mortara Center for International Studies.
Further Reading on: Weaponized Interdependence
A main area of interest for Henry Farrell, along with Abraham Newman, is the theory of Weaponized Interdependence, starting with an article providing a structural theory of how information and economic networks enable state coercion.
Henry is maintaining a separate Weaponized Interdependence website cataloging other articles related to the theory.
Of Privacy and Power: The Transatlantic Fight over Freedom and Security, by Henry Farrell & Abraham Newman
2019, Princeton University Press
Selected Reviews
Description
How disputes over privacy and security have shaped the relationship between the European Union and the United States and what this means for the future
We live in an interconnected world, where security problems like terrorism are spilling across borders, and globalized data networks and e-commerce platforms are reshaping the world economy. This means that states’ jurisdictions and rule systems clash. How have they negotiated their differences over freedom and security? Of Privacy and Power investigates how the European Union and United States, the two major regulatory systems in world politics, have regulated privacy and security, and how their agreements and disputes have reshaped the transatlantic relationship.
The transatlantic struggle over freedom and security has usually been depicted as a clash between a peace-loving European Union and a belligerent United States. Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman demonstrate how this misses the point. The real dispute was between two transnational coalitions―one favoring security, the other liberty―whose struggles have reshaped the politics of surveillance, e-commerce, and privacy rights. Looking at three large security debates in the period since 9/11, involving Passenger Name Record data, the SWIFT financial messaging controversy, and Edward Snowden’s revelations, the authors examine how the powers of border-spanning coalitions have waxed and waned. Globalization has enabled new strategies of action, which security agencies, interior ministries, privacy NGOs, bureaucrats, and other actors exploit as circumstances dictate.
The first serious study of how the politics of surveillance has been transformed, Of Privacy and Power offers a fresh view of the role of information and power in a world of economic interdependence.
Co-Author Abraham Newman
Abraham L. Newman is a professor at the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University. Known for his research on the politics generated by globalization, he serves as a frequent commentator on international affairs, appearing on news programs ranging from Al Jazeera to Deutsche Welle and NPR. His work has been published in leading outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, Nature, Science, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Harvard Business Review, and Politico.
The Political Economy of Trust: Institutions, Interests, and Inter-Firm Cooperation in Italy and Germany, by Henry Farrell
2009, Comparative Politics Series, Cambridge University Press
Description
Trust and cooperation are at the heart of the two most important approaches to comparative politics – rational choice and political culture. Yet we know little about trust’s relationship to political institutions. This book sets out a rationalist theory of how institutions – and in particular informal institutions – can affect trust without reducing it to fully determinate expectations. It then shows how this theory can be applied to comparative political economy, and in particular to explaining inter-firm cooperation in industrial districts, geographical areas of intense small firm collaboration. The book compares trust and cooperation in two prominent districts in the literature, one in Emilia Romagna, Italy, and the other in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It also sets out and applies a theory of how national informal institutions may change as a result of changes in global markets, and shows how similar mechanisms may explain persistent distrust too among Sicilian Mafiosi.