The Dollar as a Weapon: How the US Uses Financial Architecture to Project Power

Dollar dominance gives the United States a tool without historical precedent: the ability to cut adversaries off from the global financial system with the stroke of a pen. This briefing examines how sanctions, correspondent banking, and SWIFT exclusion function as instruments of statecraft. We assess the limits of financial coercion, the conditions under which it works, and the long-term costs of wielding it too freely.