During the past decade, it has become obvious that economic interconnectedness did not bring forth frictionless international relations as many liberal theorists had predicted. To the contrary, the fact that economic integration has been profoundly uneven has enabled the weaponisation of asymmetrical economic relations for the achievement of geopolitical and/or economic goals (Whyte 2022; Farrell 2023). The weaponisation of the unique international role of the US dollar is one of the most consequential examples of this trend. For instance, in the period since 2001, US sanctions designations have expanded by an extraordinary 933%. In the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine, dollar hegemony made it possible to freeze Russia’s foreign reserves and expel the country from the SWIFT payments system and US correspondent banking. Many states, including geopolitical rivals of the US such as China, understand this reality as a direct threat to their sovereign rights and interests and have been debating possible solutions, such as the introduction of central bank digital currencies and/or the creation of alternative mechanisms of payments clearing and financial messaging (Eichengreen 2022).
The intertwining between dollar hegemony and private money creation puts additional pressures on state sovereignty, as functions with profound and direct effects on the organisation of public life, such as money creation and credit allocation, are carried out by private institutions. Lawyers and political theorists alike have produced useful elaborations on the effects of dollar hegemony and public money on monetary sovereignty (Pistor 2017; Murau & van’t Klooster 2023). What remains relatively under-explored is the conceptual and practical challenges posed by dollar hegemony to state sovereignty more broadly, beyond the confines of monetary sovereignty. In other words, more work remains to be done on the tensions between state sovereignty, a globalised capitalist economy, and the economic unevenness that hegemonic currencies embody (Tzouvala 2024).
To this end, we seek contributions from economists, IR scholars, political theorists, historians, sociologists and lawyers to explore this important question as well as its theoretical and practical implications.
Political Economy seminar The Problem of History in IPE: An Intellectual History Speaker: Randall Germain, Carleton University When: 3-4pm, Wednesday, 24 April, 2024 Where: A02 Social Sciences Building, Room 341, The University of Sydney About the talk: The idea of history, although present throughout much of the traditional canon of political economy and its internationalized off-shoot…
Political economy seminar Extroverted Financialisation: Banking on USD Debt Speaker: Mareike Beck, University of Warwick When: Wednesday 17 April, 3-4pm, 2024 Where: A02 Social Sciences Building, Room 341, The University of Sydney, and Zoom About the talk: I will speak about my new book, Extroverted Financialisation: Banking on USD Debt, forthcoming with Cambridge University Press. The book offers a…
In April, the School of Social and Political Sciences, in collaboration with the Justice and Inequality research priority of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, will be hosting Mike Savage, Martin White Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. He has a longstanding interest in the social and historical sources of inequality, within…
In April, the School of Social and Political Sciences, in collaboration with the Justice and Inequality research priority of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, will be hosting Mike Savage, Martin White Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. He has a longstanding interest in the social and historical sources of inequality, within…
We are inviting abstracts for the IAG 2024 in Adelaide for our session on Energy Geography and Renewable Energy. Energy Geography and Renewable Energy Organised by: Gareth Bryant (USyd) gareth.bryant@sydney.edu.au, James Goodman (UTS) James.Goodman@UTS.edu.au, Lisa Lumsden (Next Economy) l.lumsden@nexteconomy.com.au, Sophie Webber (USyd) sophie.webber@sydney.edu.au Sponsored by the Economic Geography Study Group and the Nature, Risk and Resilience Study Group Transitions…
Political Economy Seminar Together We’ll Break These Chains of Love? The Community Ideal and the Multi-Criterial Economy Presenter: Aaron Benanav, Syracuse University Respondent: Dr Mike Beggs Date: Tuesday, 24 October 2023 Time: 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm (AEDT) Seminar via Zoom for University of Sydney staff, students and affiliates. For further information please contact John Clegg…
