When Currencies Collapse, New Powers Emerge
What the byline won't tell you: FIRST INSTANCE: THE SANCTIONS PLAYBOOK The weaponization of the global financial system is not a new phenomenon. As early as 1990, the United States imposed comprehensive sanctions on Iraq, effectively cutting off its access to international banking. These measures, purportedly to curb Saddam Hussein, devastated the Iraqi civilian population, reportedly leading to
hundreds of thousands of deaths, particularly among children, by limiting access to food and medicine ( UNICEF, 1999 ). The response from Iraq was an immediate, albeit limited, scramble for alternative mechanisms, including black markets and informal hawala systems, to mitigate the blockade. REPETITIONS: A PATTERN OF FINANCIAL ISOLATION This playbook of financial isolation has been refined and
reapplied. In the mid-2000s, Iran faced escalating sanctions over its nuclear program. By 2012, sanctions from the US and EU had largely cut Iran out of the SWIFT banking system, crippling its oil exports and causing a severe economic contraction ( Council on Foreign Relations, 2019 ). In response, Iran significantly expanded its use of barter systems, illicit money transfers, and began exploring
digital currency solutions to maintain trade relationships. Similarly, Venezuela, post-2017, saw its oil sector targeted by sanctions, leading to a humanitarian crisis and a government-backed embrace of cryptocurrency (the Petro) to circumvent US financial controls ( Reuters, 2017 ). In all these instances, sanctions were framed as a means to alter state behavior, yet their primary impact was