Central bank digital currencies and the global monetary system

Most existing international political economy research on central bank digital currencies focuses on a limited set of countries and policy objectives, which restricts understanding of how CBDC strategies vary across national contexts and what they imply for the global monetary system. This paper begins by examining the political economy surrounding CBDC adoption from a broad perspective encompassing most of the major potential effects of CBDCs. It then uses this analysis to map the global CBDC landscape, identifying five major groups of CBDC policies based on their primary goals, and considering which countries are likely to fall into each group and which CBDC models they may adopt. Building on this mapping, the article highlights three key issues for future IPE research on CBDCs: the feasibility of CBDC networks challenging the current dollar-centered global monetary system, the public acceptability of retail CBDCs, and the international responses to recent US stablecoin policy developments.