The Hidden Globe

Atossa Araxia Abrahamian is an independent journalist. She was a senior editor at The Nation and an editor at Al Jazeera America. Her articles have been published in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Guardian, The Intercept, the London Review of Books, and elsewhere. Her previous book, The Cosmopolites: The Coming of the Global Citizen (2015), examined the complexities of global citizenship and the sale of passports to the wealthy elite. Abrahamian holds multiple passports; she is a citizen of Switzerland, Iran, Canada, and the United States. Abrahamian grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, and currently lives in New York City.

Abrahamian’s beat is the global elite, liminal or unusual economies, and forms of state sovereignty. These topics are all well-represented in The Hidden Globe. Some of the research found in the book was based on her previous reporting, such as the discussion of Asgardia, “the world’s first space-based nation” (155). Other research was conducted specifically for the book, like her visit to Svalbard. Finally, Abrahamian also draws on her own experiences growing up in Geneva, which puts the book into the new journalism genre of nonfiction—a style in which reporters document their perspectives and reactions to the events and personalities they encounter.