The present international financial architecture (IFA) has been weakening since the early 2010s. Several factors have hindered the reorganization of the current IFA, accelerated the bipolarization of international financial relations, and reshaped the balance of power between sovereign debtors...

"We present new evidence on the currency composition of foreign exchange reserves in the 1920s and 1930s. Contrary to the presumption that the pound sterling continued to dominate the U.S. dollar in central bank reserves until after World War II, we show that the dollar first overtook sterling...