Global Dominance of Dollar: Theory and Prospects

In this article, the author concludes that a multipolar international monetary system (IMS) (multicurrency system) will gradually, naturally, and inevitably emerge. To prove this point, he focuses on the dual and contradictory nature of any global currency based on a national currency unit. On the one hand, such a currency tends to become a “public good” for all participants in the global economy, detached from its national roots. On the other hand, it invariably remains an essential element of the national economy and a marker of its sovereignty, and therefore requires constant state supervision and regulation. At a certain stage, the interests of the state whose national currency has become global begin to diverge from the needs and interests of those who use such currency at their discretion. For the former, the national currency that has become international turns into a powerful instrument of global domination, the “master” of the vertical-hierarchical model of the global economy, while the latter would like to see it as nothing more than a “servant” helping to expand and connect the horizontally distributed global economic network. In the proposed article, the author offers his answer to the question of whether the dollar, with its internal contradictions, can remain the leader of the IMS, linking numerous exchange transactions across the entire global market for goods and services. According to the author, forces opposing the hegemony of the dollar will inevitably form in the IMS. The author shows how, at the level of interpersonal relations, regional “currency networks” are forming, where currencies that are not reserve currencies actively circulate. According to the author, the democratization and diversification of the IMS will continue to grow.