Global territories: zones of economic and legal dis/connectivity

Abstract

This article develops a notion of global territoriality for understanding the proliferation of special offshore zones in the context of globalization. It furnishes an account of how political territoriality is used for shaping global dis/connectivity. The argument is developed through the exploration of two distinct cases of offshore zones that are usually not theorized as a common phenomenon: one case is the financial offshore center on the Cayman Islands, the other case is the Australian offshore center for processing refugee claims on Christmas Island. Whereas the one site deals with non-resident money, the other one administers non-resident subjects. The article shows that despite the different aims that these sites serve, they are homologous in how they employ territorial strategies for modulating connectivity. We focus on three dimensions: the topological enfolding of inside/outside relations, the bifurcation between legal and physical presence, and a politics of visibility. By studying how these uses of territoriality entail a recalibration of the obligations and accountability tied to monetary and legal relations, this article develops a different notion of the global. Instead of understanding the global in terms of scale, it suggests an understanding of the global in terms of a politics of connectivity.