The Sovereign State: The Secret History of International Telephone and Telegraph is a non-fiction book by Anthony Sampson published on July 1, 1973, by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.[1] The book focuses on the history of ITT Corporation to make a broader point about the weakening of the authority of traditional national governments by the multinational corporations.

In a review of Sampson's book in the Sunday Telegraph, Sir Frank McFadzean, Vice Chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell, took issue with that thesis.

Such corporations are "prisoners of their past investments," he wrote, because "even the most puny government can nationalize, and the only redress is to seek compensation."

Although as Sampson's book shows ITT has used other means of redress to defend its own business interests from nationalisation, that have not been confined to the courts.

These have ranged from supporting the 1930s military takeover by General Franco in Spain, investing in Hitler's war machine throughout World War II, and funding a CIA-backed coup led by General Pinochet in Chile 1973.