Abstract This study takes Epstein Island as a foundational case to address a broader question: Why have islands repeatedly emerged as spaces that accommodate different forms of evil throughout ancient and modern history? It argues that this association cannot be explained by the natural characteristics of islands or by the myths historically attached to them. Rather, it stems from the geopolitical functions islands perform as spaces of exception, isolation, and the reconfiguration of the relationship between power, law and surveillance. To develop this argument, the study establishes the concept of the “geopolitics of evil”, drawing on David Harvey’s analysis of the production and restructuring of space, Michel Foucault’s work on spaces of exclusion and the regulation of visibility and invisibility, Giorgio Agamben’s theory of the state of exception and the suspension of law, and Yves Lacoste’s conception of geography as an instrument for the production of power and conflict. Building on these theoretical foundations, the study proposes an analytical model that links geographical isolation, legal exceptionality, networks of influence and media narratives as the shared structural elements underlying the formation of “islands of evil”. The study tests this model through a comparative analysis of three cases: Guantanamo Bay, nuclear testing islands, and islands of the shadow economy. It demonstrates that differences in function do not negate the underlying structural unity. Despite their divergent purposes, these islands all employ geography to produce exceptional spaces in which the relationships among power, law, capital and surveillance are fundamentally reconfigured. The study concludes that “islands of evil” should be understood neither as a geographical category nor as a moral label, but as an analytical framework that explains how geography, within the modern state and the contemporary international order, becomes an instrument for producing states of exception and restructuring networks of power, thereby making place itself an active agent in the construction of influence and the management of domination. Keywords: geopolitics; islands of evil; Epstein Island; exception; geopolitics of evil; networks of power; Michel Foucault; Giorgio Agamben; Yves Lacoste.
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