10 May 2022

How the West Was One

Dr Michael Howell

A world without the US dollar is a near impossible thought. But spurred on by the Russia–Ukraine conflict and the extension of sanctions, many now see a fast-growing challenge to the US dollar’s dominance from rival units such as the Chinese yuan.

Doubters point to the fall in the US dollar’s share of forex reserves from 73% in 2001 to under 59% today. Academics widely predict that the world is heading for a multipolar currency system. There is even a clamour to label these new configurations ‘Bretton Woods II’ or even ‘Bretton Woods III’, after the 1944 world monetary conference which set out the currency contours that underpin the international liberal order.

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