In the 1980s, South African libertarians set up a deregulated zone that they sold to the world as ‘Africa’s Switzerland’. It was a sham, but with its clusters of sweatshops, it was very modern – and in some ways it anticipated the world we live in today
A standard globe shows an uneven mosaic of colours, pixelated more densely in Europe and Africa, easing out to broader stretches across Asia and North America. This is a familiar vision of the world, the one we have been taught since childhood: each patch of land with its own flag, its own anthem, its own national costume and cuisine.
But we make a mistake if we see the world only in this jigsaw of nations. In fact, within each nation are numerous unusual legal spaces, anomalous territories and peculiar jurisdictions. The world of nations is riddled with zones – city states, havens, enclaves, freeports, hi-tech parks, duty-free districts and innovation hubs – and they define the politics of the present in ways we are only starting to understand.
