Behind an Offshore Mask: sovereignty games in the global political economy

This study of global financial flows and offshore financial centres (OFCs) draws on the concept of nomadology as developed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari to argue that OFCs not only facilitate the circulation of global capital, but also serve to create the means for identity arbitrage. This concept highlights the use of the offshore in order to benefit from the variety of preferential measures offered to foreign firms and investment capital. State sovereignty authorises legislation by regimes to attract and regulate foreign investment. International banking statistics are examined for indications of the use of and impact from exploiting the offshore to establish a different national identity in pursuit of the greatest available return on investment. The paper concludes that the design of legislation by onshore states is just as complicit in the positive and negative effects of the offshore economy as are the small sovereign economies that host an OFC.