Bucking the Buck

The US dollar is the world's indispensable currency, and it provides the United States enormous coercive powers against its adversaries. Over the last twenty years, Washington has increasingly relied on financial sanctions, but Bucking the Buck shows that the more the US wields the dollar as a foreign policy weapon, the more its adversaries move their economic activities into other currencies to avoid US coercion. The book shows that if the US wants to protect the dollar's status, its approach to sanctions needs to become more nuanced.