The architecture of global finance has rested on two interconnecting pillars for decades: the US dollar and the SWIFT messaging network. SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) connects over 11,500 institutions in more than 200 countries and handles around 44 million messages a day. It does not move money itself but coordinates the instructions that enable cross-border payments. All while the dollar sits at the centre of this system as the dominant

In this world where we live today, the primary threat of conflict has shifted from territorial borders to the digital ledgers of central banks and the invisible corridors of global finance. The author, Urjit Patel, who is currently serving as the Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund and a former Reserve Bank of India Governor, provides a clinical autopsy of this transformation. Illustration by The Geostrata While his earlier work, Overdraft, focused on the in

What grants the US unparalleled power over shaping the global narratives? What allows the US to punish its adversaries and allies alike?...