New Delhi, July 17 -- Offshore financial centres rarely make front-page news the way summits or sanctions packages do. Yet these jurisdictions quietly determine how trillions of dollars move, how ships are registered, and how corporate profits are taxed. Their influence on global diplomacy is structural rather than dramatic, which is precisely why it endures.

the practice of shopping across borders for the friendliest tax code, banking secrecy law, or shipping registry. Small states have turned this into genuine geopolitical leverage, forcing larger powers to negotiate around their rules rather than simply overriding them.

Offshore Jurisdictions as Tools of Economic Statecraft

Offshore wealth is not a marginal phenomenon. In 2023, an e...