Financial warfare

Will there be a backlash against the dollar? The sanctions freezing Russia’s foreign currency reserves have created an incentive for countries to bypass the US currency. Robin Wigglesworth, Polina Ivanova and Colby Smith examine whether these intentions will stick. "The power of the sanctions on Russia is based on the dominance of the US dollar, which is the most widely-used currency in trade, financial transactions and central bank reserves. Yet by explicitly weaponising the dollar in this way, the US and its allies risk provoking a backlash that could undermine the US currency and sunder the global financial system into rival blocks that could leave everyone worse off."