Interlocking Empires

Power and control are not straightforward matters anymore. Empires and imperialism exist in different forms today than in the past. Economic empires exist, private sector empires, shareholder empires, empires of debt, oligarchical empires, and all of these various types of empires overlap and intersect. BlackRock and Vanguard are imperial structures. The governments are just nodes in a larger, power network.

Today, you have to secure, your sovereignty in multiple spheres at the same time against the domination of multiple other imperial powers. I mean, you can declare your independence. You can declare, you know, an Islamic government, a Khilafa, or what have you. What real independence would you have when you're still embedded within this dense interlocking set of power networks?