Issue Transformation of the international economic and monetary system

Summary

Deepening geoeconomic fragmentation is shrinking the gains from economic openness as investment, trade and financial flows are rearranged around alliances and blocs. As sanctions and export controls expand, economic security has become a top policy agenda, and sanctions risk now shapes decisions on payments, trade finance and supply chains. Economic interdependence is increasingly seen as a security vulnerability, and major powers have begun using the economy as an instrument of national security. Supply chains are being reorganised around allies and shared values, intensifying competition over technology standards, green protectionism and the bloc-based division of trade and investment. Emerging economies such as the BRICS members are building alternative payment networks and expanding the use of their own currencies to counter the dollar-centred system, accelerating a reshaping of multilateralism.