I was about to link to something I'd read in Foreign Policy a few days ago until Krugman beat me to the punch:

> I don’t want to overstate the case here. The dollar’s role as the dominant currency for ordinary business is not under threat. A new article in Foreign Policy by Agathe Demarais is titled “China’s de-dollarization drive has hit a wall.” [1]

The headline is this:

> Iran’s ability to withstand American pressure has demonstrated that U.S. sanctions are a lot less effective than in the past given that rogue actors can use the yuan and CIPS as a work-around.

The dollar as an instrument of offensive diplomacy is now weakened, not as the currency of international transaction. That being said Iran's economy isn't exactly doing numbers at the moment so even this caveat has a caveat.

[1] https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/06/24/china-dollar-dedollariz...

Perhaps it is the use of the dollar as an instrument of offensive diplomacy that is weakening it.

Economic sanctions used to be rare, between 2000 and 2021 they grew by 1000% and the list is something like 17,000 entities long.

Is USD still a currency or is it now more like Robux: Swiftly confiscated if you violate the TOS?

> The dollar as an instrument of offensive diplomacy is now weakened

How strong was it in the first place? Anyone can just accept dollars without worrying they'll be able to spend them - the dollar spends just about anywhere, the US only has control of whether US companies will do business with you.

There have been quite a few countries whose central banking had collapsed, and they decided to just adopt the dollar or euro as currency, to the disapproval of the respective power blocs, but its not like they could do anything about it.

The only risk here is money printing, but that's not a targeted weapon (if its a weapon in the first place)