Offshoreness, globalization and sovereignty: a postmodern geo-political economy?

Processes of globalization rework sovereignty as the ordering principle of the international political economy, creating new geographies of power. Suc h a reworking is most apparent offshore, a site where sovereignty is unbund led. The principle of sovereignty is maintained in the offshore financial c entres' legal sovereignty but relinquished in terms of their fiscal powers. This unbundling articulates the state system and the capitalist economy. S uch an unbundling is possible because sovereignty is based upon property ri ghts. Changes in the practices and understandings of property rights change the meaning of sovereignty, altering the principle of differentiation whic h shapes the international political economy. In this way, the paradoxical marginality and centrality of offshoreness to the dynamics of the internati onal political economy is explained.