The recent “weaponisation” of finance against Russia might accelerate actions and ambitions to rethink financial globalisation to reduce the global dependence on Western-led currencies and payment infrastructure. Transformations in the international monetary system have historically been slow to materialise, though. Inertia and frictions are key forces that tend to consolidate the unipolarity of the system but, in the context of growing politicisation of money , the process of financial digitalisation can be a crucial force of change in pushing for diversification.
Even though no other contender can challenge the existing US-dominated dollar system in the short-to-medium term, it is key to strategically reflect upon the long-term implications of a possible erosion of the Western leadership in the global monetary system. This volume focuses on the key question of whether recent geopolitical tensions and economic dislocations could be a catalyst for transformation in the current international monetary system.