The US Dollar as the Global Reserve Currency: Implications for US Hegemony

Abstract

This article analyses the implications of the establishment of the US dollar as the global reserve currency. The political and economic context of the founding of the dollar as the reserve currency is examined, and key changes that have occurred since the dollar was installed as the global reserve currency are explored. Challenges to the future of the dollar as the global reserve are analysed. The article argues that the dollar as the global reserve currency is an instrument of US hegemonic power, but it is one that has been largely overlooked in the existing literature on US hegemony.