Dollar Weaponization and the Fragmentation of the Global Political Economy: Assessing BRICS Pursuit of Financial Autonomy
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Study design: Systematic Review
Abstract: The intensifying use of financial sanctions, asset freezes and payment-system exclusions by the United States has turned the dollar from a neutral unit of exchange into an instrument of geopolitical coercion. This paper examines dollar weaponization and its consequences for the fragmentation of the global political economy. The primary objective is to examine the mechanisms through which the weaponization of the US dollar facilitates geopolitical coercion within the international financial system. Furthermore, it assesses the extent to which this weaponization has accelerated de-dollarization initiatives among BRICS countries in their pursuit of financial autonomy. The study adopts a qualitative systematic literature review anchored in structural realism and complimented with the theory of weaponized interdependence. The study finds that the structural centrality of the dollar within global payment networks converts financial interdependence into a coercive tool that dominant states use to monitor, restrict and punish targeted actors. Furthermore, repeated recourse to this tool has pushed China, Russia and members of the BRICS grouping toward alternative settlement systems, reserve diversification and regional financial arrangements, producing a gradual multipolar realignment of monetary power. It concludes that dollar weaponization is accelerating the fragmentation of the liberal economic order it was designed to protect.
Source: Research Square
Language: English
Subfield: Finance
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7214933440