58.  Read, “Peter Thiel’s Latest Venture Is the American Government.”

    59.  Damian Shepherd, “World’s Top Enabler of Financial Secrecy Is the United States,” Bloomberg, May 16, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022–05–16/world-s-top-enabler-of-financial-secrecy-is-the-united-states?sref=apOkUyd1.

    60.  The indicator is created by the Polity Project. Rebecca Best, “Why Risk for Violence in U.S. Rises Without Roe,” Washington Post, May 10, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/10/roe-civil-conflict-military-democracy-gender/.

    61.  Craib, Adventure Capitalism: A History of Libertarian Exit from Decolonization to the Digital Age, 247.

    62.  Richard Kreitner, Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2020), 371.

    63.  Rich Lowry, “A Surprising Share of Americans Wants to Break Up the Country. Here’s Why They’re Wrong,” Politico, October 6, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/10/06/americans-national-divorse-theyre-wrong-515443.

    64.  Joan Faus, “Catalan Leader Says to Freeze Parliamentary Support to Spanish PM over Spying Row,” Reuters, April 21, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/catalan-leader-says-freeze-parliamentary-support-spanish-pm-over-spying-row-2022-04-21/.

    65.  Alastair Bonnett, Else Where: A Journey into Our Age of Islands (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020), 225–30.

    66.  Neil Munshi and William Clowes, “Mega-Consulate Ties U.S. to Convicted Billionaire in Nigeria,” Bloomberg, May 9, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022–05–10/mega-consulate-ties-u-s-to-convicted-billionaire-in-nigeria.

    67.  Caline Malek, “Middle East Hospitality Project Pushes the Boundaries of Sustainable Construction,” Arab News, November 20, 2021, https://www.arabnews.com/node/1977791/middle-east; and “How Dubai’s Heart of Europe Mega Project Aims to Be Kind to the Planet,” April 16, 2020, https://thoe.com/how-dubais-heart-of-europe-mega-project-aims-to-be-kind-to-the-planet/.

    68.  Becky Ferreira, “We Need to Talk About a Planned Retreat from Climate Disaster Zones Now,” Vice, September 20, 2019, https://www.vice.com/en/article/3kxv73/we-need-to-talk-about-a-planned-retreat-from-climate-disaster-zones-now. See also Liz Koslov, “The Case for Retreat,” Public Culture 28, no. 2 (2016): 359–87.

    69.  On this episode see Isabelle Simpson, “Cultural Political Economy of the Start-Up Societies Imaginary” (PhD diss., McGill University, 2021), chap. 6.

    70.  Rowland Atkinson and Sarah Blandy, “A Picture of the Floating World: Grounding the Secessionary Affluence of the Residential Cruise Liner,” Antipode 41, no. 1 (2009).

    71.  Bell, Your Next Government?: From the Nation State to Stateless Nations, 56.

    72.  Madeline Berg, “Coronavirus: Even the World’s Largest Luxury Yacht Has Now Stopped Sailing,” Forbes, March 16, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2020/03/16/the-worlds-largest-luxury-yacht-suspends-operations-amid-coronavirus/?sh=6d497e7d5f78. For a similar observation see Simpson, “Cultural Political Economy of the Start-Up Societies Imaginary.” For an extraordinary story of another failed libertarian cruise ship venture see Sophie Elmhirst, “The Disastrous Voyage of Satoshi, the World’s First Cryptocurrency Cruise Ship,” Guardian, September 7, 2021, Global Newsstream.

    73.  Benjamin Haas, “Hong Kong Government Seeks to Bar Four More MPs,” Guardian, December 2, 2016, Global Newsstream.

    74.  Antony Dapiran, City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong (Melbourne: Scribe, 2020), 254.

    75.  Hannes Gissurarson, Spending Other People’s Money: A Critique of Rawls, Piketty and Other Redistributionists (Brussels, Belgium: New Direction, 2018), 8.

    76.  M. Ackbar Abbas, Hong Kong: Culture and the Politics of Disappearance (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997).

    77.  Summers, China’s Hong Kong, 68. See also Jamie Peck, “On Capitalism’s Cusp,” Area Development and Policy 6, no. 1 (2021): 1–30.

    78.  “The JOC Top 50 World Container Ports,” Journal of Commerce (August 20–27, 2012): 24, https://www.joc.com/sites/default/files/u48783/pdf/Top50-container-2012.pdf; and World Shipping Council, “The Top 50 Container Ships,” accessed January 31, 2022, https://www.worldshipping.org/top-50-ports.

    79.  Edwin J. Feulner, “Hong Kong Is No Longer What It Was,” The Heritage Foundation, April 5, 2021, https://www.heritage.org/asia/commentary/hong-kong-no-longer-what-it-was.

    80.  Hung, City on the Edge: Hong Kong Under Chinese Rule, 8.

    81.  Hung, 209–16.

    82.  Mark Lutter, Charter Cities Podcast, episode 8, “Building a New Hong Kong with Ivan Ko,” July 13, 2020, https://www.chartercitiesinstitute.org/post/charter-cities-podcast-episode-9-ivan-ko.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I am filled with gratitude to the people who have lent their support, ideas, and friendship in the years it’s taken to write this book. Thank you to Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, Hadji Bakara, Tim Barker, Grace Blakeley, Mark Blyth, William Callison, Will Davies, Daniel Denvir, Kristin Fabbe, Katrina Forrester, Heinrich Geiselberger, Ryan S. Jeffery, Ana Isabel Keilson, Alexander Kentikelenis, Aaron Kerner, Kojo Koram, Mathew Lawrence, Jamie Martin, Thomas Meaney, Dieter Plehwe, Justin Reynolds, Thea Riofrancos, Pavlos Roufos, Stuart Schrader, Hank Silver, Ben Tarnoff, Christy Thornton, Alberto Toscano, Isabella Weber, Moira Weigel, Kirsten Weld, and a special one to Boaz Levin for reading an early vision of the whole thing. Thank you to Mel Flashman for your intellectual camaraderie and advocacy and to Sara Bershtel and Grigory Tovbis for helping rebuild the book at sea and guide it into port. Thank you also to Marion Kadi for the maps and, at the presses, to Tim Duggan, Anita Sheih, and Clarissa Long at Holt and Thomas Penn, Matthew Hutchison, Eva Hodgkin, and Julie Woon at Penguin. Thanks to Cameron Abadi at Foreign Policy, Hettie O’Brien and Jonathan Shainin at the Guardian, Gavin Jacobson at New Statesman, and John Guida at Suein Hwang at the New York Times for helping me try out parts of the argument in public. The Harvard Book Store, Munro’s, and Raven provided many of the books needed to write this book. NTS provided much of the music. Emotional molten core provided by my parents and siblings and family penumbra in the pandemic years and always. And, most of all, endless thanks to my love and fellow traveler Michelle and our son, Yann, with whom I am lucky enough to wake up in the same home every blessed morning.

  INDEX

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Abramovich, Roman

  Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

  Aden

  Afghanistan, US invasion of

  Africa. See also specific locations

  African National Congress

  Afrikaner Freedom Front

  Airbnb

  Al Makhtoum, Sheikh

  Al Makhtoum family

  Alongside Night (Schulman)

  Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD)

  Alternative Right

  Amazon

  American Renaissance

  American South

  American West

  anarcho-capitalism

  Dubai and

  internet and

  New Middle Ages and

  post–Cold War narrative and

  Somalia and

  Anderson, Perry

  Andorra

  Andreesen, Marc

  Andreesen Horowitz

  Angola

  anocracy

  Anstalt

  anti-apartheid movement

  anti-capitalism

  anti-immigration

  anti-republics

  ant theory

  apartheid state

  apocalyptic economics

  Apple

  Arabian Peninsula

  Aramco oil refinery

  arbitration

  “archipelago economy of offshore”

  Ariel settlement, West Bank

  aristocratic state ownership

  Arlington House

  Arsenal Football Club

  artificial intelligence

  Aruba

  Asia. See also specific locations

  Asian tiger economies

  “Asian values,” trope of

  Athens, Greece

  Atlantic

  Atlantis I

  Atlantis II

  Atlas Foundation

  Australia

  Austria

  authoritarianism

  autocracy

  automation

  Avalon

  Awdal Roads Company

  Bab el-Mandeb Strait

  Bahamas

  balanced budget amendments

  Balkans

  Baltic states

  Bannon, Stephen K.

  Bantustans

  Bao’an, China

  Barlow, John Perry

  Barre, Siad

  Bedouins

  Behavioral Systems Southwest

  Belgium

  Belgrade

  Benson, Bruce

  Benton, Lauren

  Berbera, Somaliland

  Berlin, Isaiah

  Berlin Wall, fall of

  Bermuda

  Bethell, Tom

  Biafra

  Biko, Steve

  Bitcoin

  Bitcoin City

  Black Monday stock market crash, 1987

  Black Muslims

  Black nationalism

  Blair, Tony

  blockchain technology

  Blundell, John

  Boaz, David

  Boers

  Bolsonaro, Jair

  Bonilla, Manuel

  “boomerang effect”

  Bophuthatswana, South Africa

  borders, barricading of

  Boshoff, Carel

  Boston, Massachusetts

  Bradley, Marion Zimmer

  Brand, Stewart

  Brandt, Willy

  Braudel, Fernand

  Breitbart

  Brexit

  Brimelow, Peter

  Brimen, Erick

  Brin, Sergey

  British East India Company

  British Empire

  British Somaliland

  British Virgin Islands

  Brook, Daniel

  Brosnan, Pierce

  Buchanan, Pat

  Bukele, Nayib

  Bull, Hedley

  Bullough, Oliver

  Burj Khalifa

  Burke, Edmund

  Burma

  Burning Man

  Busan, South Korea

  Bush administration

  Butler, Stuart

  California

  calories

  Cambodia

  Canada

  Canary Islands

  Canary Wharf

  cantonization

  capitalism

  changing nature of

  China and

  vs. communism

  Confucian capitalism

  democratic

  in Eastern Europe

  evolution of global

  narratives about

  politics and

  radical capitalism

  rules and

  transnational

  unfettered

  without democracy

  Castro, Xiamaro

  Catalonia

  Cato Institute

  Cayman Islands

  Celtic South Thesis

  centralized networks

  Chamayou, Grégoire

  Chamberlain, John

  Channel Islands

  Charles Koch Foundation

  Charlottesville, Virginia, white nationalists march in

  charter cities

  charter schools

  Chelsea Football Club

  Chengdu, China

  Chicago, Illinois

  Chile

  China. See also specific locations

  in 1990s

  banning of cryptocurrency in

  Belt and Road Initiative

  capitalism and

  “century of humiliation” and

  Cultural Revolution in

  “experimental gradualism” and

  “fragmented authoritarianism” in

  Hong Kong and

  “iron rice bowl” tradition of permanent employment

  liberalism in

  manufacturing zones of

  real estate shows in

  rise of

  Singapore and

  Soviet Union and

  special economic zones (SEZs) in

  zones in

  Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

  Chirac, Jacques

  CIA (US Central Intelligence Agency)

  Ciskei, South Africa

  cities. See also city-states; specific cities

  as legal islands

  as mines turned upside down

  citizenship(s)

  citizen-customers

  by contract

  “contract citizens”

  in Liechtenstein

  multiple

  opt-in, opt-out version of

  replaced by customers

  rights of

  City of London

  city-states

  Civil War (US), revisionist interpretations of

  clans

  Clavell, James

  climate change

  Clinton, Bill

  cloud country

  coaling stations

  Cold War

  end of

  colonialism

  free enterprise and

  by invitation

  revival of

  colonization

  Columbus, Christopher

  commodification, utopia and

  Commonwealth of Southern States

  communism

  vs. capitalism

  collapse of

  communities, self-policing by

  company towns

  Confucian capitalism

  Conservative Party (UK)

  container ships

  container terminals

  contract(s)

  “contract citizens”

  contractual communities

  social contract

  Cool Britannia

  corporate governance

  Corporation of London

  corporations

  corporate taxes

  corporate welfare

  development corporations

  sovereign corporations (sovcorps)

  cosplay

  Costa Rica

  “countrypreneurship”

  COVID-19 pandemic

  Cowen, Deborah

  crack-up capitalism

  definition of

  significance of

  Crane, Ed

  crisis

  of democracy

  as galvanizer

  Croatia

  “crony capitalism index”

  “Crown colonies”

  cryptocurrency

  cryptography

  CSX World Terminals

  cultural essentialism

  “culture fever”

  Cummings, Dominic

  cybercash

  cyberpunk

  cyberspace

  Cyprus

  Czechoslovakia

  Dallas, Texas

  Davidson, James Dale

  Davidson, Jim

  Davis, Mike

  debt brake

  decentralization

  decolonization

  deglobalization

  Deist, Jeff

  Delaware

  delivery services

  democracy

  abandonment of

  absence of

  artificial intelligence and

  automation and

  capitalism without

  crisis of

  direct

  in Hong Kong

  language of

  markets and

  messiness of

  movement away from social democracy

  narratives about

  nation branding and

  in question in United States

  republican

  restricted franchise and

  revival of

  in Singapore

  Democracy for Docklands

  democratic capitalism

  “democratic feudalism”

  democratization, narratives about

  Deng Xiaoping

  deregulation

  Deutsche Bank

  development corporations

  direct democracy

  “discontinuists”

  disenfranchisement

  disintegration

  distributed networks

  Djibouti, Somaliland

  Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport

  Dominican Republic–Central America–United States Free Trade Agreement

  Doraleh oil terminal

  DP World (Dubai Ports World)

  drug trafficking

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  authoritarianism in

  citizens of

  expansion of

  expats in

  foreign population in

  foreign workers in

  global financial crisis and

  globalization and

  hyperreality of

  journalists and

  migrants in

  radical legal pluralism in

  real estate in

  rise of in early 2000s

  United States and

  Dubai Healthcare City

  Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)

  Dubai Knowledge Village (Knowledge Park)

  Dubai World Trade Centre

  Duke Cariadoc of the Bow

  duty-free zones

  East Asia. See also specific locations

  Eastern Europe. See also specific locations

  eBay

  Ebola epidemic