Undermining the U.S. Dollar and Strategic Influence: Triggering Global Uncertainty, Economic Crises, and Regional Conflicts
The twenty-first century is witnessing a profound geopolitical transformation. The Global importance of the United States and the centrality of the U.S. dollar remain pivotal in maintaining international stability. However, ongoing challenges to America’s Global role, coupled with the rise of alternative power blocs led by China and Russia, threaten to destabilise the global system. Any weakening of the U.S. position will not only create political and economic uncertainty but also produce psychological fractures among nations. This would exacerbate regional rivalries, making the emerging world order deeply destructive for humanity.
Global Strategic Outlook and Emerging Risks
In light of the rapidly changing global landscape, it is imperative to highlight the potential threats and risks facing the world today. The ongoing strategic manoeuvres of China and Russia, aimed at reshaping the global order and forging new alignments, carry consequences that cannot be ignored. At the same time, the United States appears to be pursuing a flawed strategy by exerting unnecessary economic pressure on India, one of the world’s largest democracies and most important emerging economies, while simultaneously sidelining its role in the region.
Even more concerning is Washington’s tendency to overlook the destructive actions of Pakistan, a state that has become a symbol of extremism and terrorism. By granting preference and support to such an irresponsible and failed state over India, the United States risks fueling further instability. This approach could embolden Pakistan’s extremist and militant networks, thereby intensifying terrorism, religious extremism, and large-scale violence across the region.
Despite these developments, one undeniable reality remains: the global importance of the U.S. dollar, and America’s political and military weight, cannot simply be undermined or displaced by a hastily constructed “new world order” or artificial realignment of global powers. However, attempts to do so may plunge the entire world into an uncertain political, economic, and strategic environment—one that demands serious reflection and responsibility from the international community.
Any reckless or hasty restructuring of global power alignments could inadvertently push the world toward major conflict or catastrophe. For this reason, the intellectuals, policymakers, and leadership of all nations must address these challenges with foresight and responsibility. Similarly, U.S. leadership must also recognize that neglecting India, an essential nation, the world’s largest democracy, and a rising economic middle-class power, Such an approach by the United States will only harm America’s political, economic, and strategic interests in the long term.
Marginalising or weakening India will only strengthen Pakistan’s disruptive role in the region, providing oxygen to terrorism and extremism. Once such forces are unleashed on a greater scale, containing them will become extraordinarily difficult.
The world, therefore, must approach these strategic shifts with caution, ensuring that short-sighted policies do not push humanity toward greater instability and destruction.
The Risks of Undermining the U.S. Dollar and Strategic Stability
The U.S. dollar has long stood as the backbone of the global economy, serving not only as the world’s reserve currency but also as a guarantor of financial and strategic stability. Its central role underpins international trade, investment, and debt structures, while simultaneously anchoring trust in the global financial system. Any attempt to weaken its influence would not simply redistribute power among competing states; it would fracture the very foundation of international economic confidence, thereby producing heightened political and strategic uncertainty.
Despite the domestic polarisation it faces and the rise of external challenges, the United States continues to be a military and economic superpower. Its expansive web of alliances، from NATO in Europe to the QUAD in the Indo-Pacific، anchors global order and deters large-scale instability. Weakening American power, whether by undermining the dollar or eroding its alliances, would not create a balanced multipolarity. Instead, it would generate a dangerous vacuum, inviting competing powers that prioritise narrow strategic ambitions over collective stability.
Moves by China and Russia to promote alternative financial systems, such as the wider use of the Chinese yuan or the development of BRICS-led currencies, are emblematic of these destabilising pressures. While intended to challenge U.S. importance, such efforts carry far-reaching risks. A sudden shift away from the dollar would unsettle trade, trigger volatility in capital flows, and destabilise the debt structures of developing economies. The ripple effects would extend beyond markets, threatening political systems already vulnerable to fragility.
If the dollar’s centrality and U.S. strategic influence were to collapse abruptly, the consequences would be profound: economic crises, fractured alliances, political instability, and a global security vacuum. In such an environment, extremism, terrorism, and even state collapse would find fertile ground. Far from ushering in a stable multipolar order, the weakening of the U.S. dollar and American power would plunge the world into deeper uncertainty and strategic chaos.
China and Russia’s Push for a New World Order
China and Russia, along with certain aligned states, are spearheading efforts to construct an alternative world order. Through platforms such as BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), these powers aim to build financial, political, and infrastructural systems that challenge Western hegemony.
While framed as multipolarity, these initiatives risk dividing the world into “standard” and “non-standard” blocs of legitimacy. For China and Russia, this restructuring is a necessity، China seeks to secure resources and markets to sustain its economic growth, while Russia attempts to break Western isolation in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. Yet, this order is unlikely to be sustainable. Instead of stability, it will foster fragmentation, creating new divisions and aggravating global insecurity.
Regional Fragmentation and the Rise of Warlordism
The push toward competing world orders risks producing a world characterised by regional fragmentation. Each major power will attempt to dominate a cluster of states, seeking control over resources, energy supplies, and strategic trade routes. This dynamic threatens to turn global governance into a patchwork of rival spheres of influence.
Institutions like the United Nations, already struggling with paralysis, may face irrelevance or collapse. In such a scenario, regional “warlordisms” could dominate international politics, where coercion replaces cooperation, and transactional alliances replace multilateralism. The erosion of collective institutions would severely undermine humanity’s ability to address transnational challenges such as climate change, pandemics, and food security.
Pakistan’s Role in the Emerging Order
The United States, in pursuit of strategic interests, has historically supported states like Pakistan despite their internal instability and extremist tendencies. In the evolving realignment, Washington may again rely on such artificial or fragile states to secure tactical advantages.
This policy, however, carries severe risks. Pakistan’s history of fostering extremism and terrorism makes it a destabilising actor in South Asia and beyond. Strengthening such states will fuel the spread of militancy, undermining regional security. Without effective checks, Pakistan’s role in either the U.S.-led or China-led order will exacerbate global extremism rather than contain it.
India’s Marginalisation and Its Consequences
India, the world’s largest democracy and home to one of the biggest middle-class populations, stands at a critical juncture. Despite its economic and strategic potential, India finds itself marginalised in both competing world orders. The American-led system, due to shortsighted leadership, has sidelined India instead of accepting it as a central partner. Conversely, the China-led alternative seeks to diminish India’s influence, an attitude of seeing India as a lesser importance compared to its own power, importance, and status, rather than as an equal power in the region
This dual neglect has profound consequences. India’s exclusion from a rightful role creates a strategic vacuum in South Asia, enabling Pakistan’s extremism to grow unchecked. Furthermore, by sidelining India, the U.S. risks losing a democratic counterbalance to authoritarian models promoted by China and Russia. This is not only a strategic miscalculation but also a long-term loss for global democracy.
The Perils of a Hastily Reconstructed Global Order
The rush to reconfigure the global order carries profound risks. Any attempt to redesign the system in haste or with negligence will inevitably result in fragility and instability. What the world urgently needs is not an improvised or reactionary restructuring of power, but a cautious and comprehensive approach to global governance، one that prioritises cooperation over competition.
Humanity requires neither a blood-soaked, war-driven capitalism that thrives on militarisation and exploitation, nor a rigid, mechanical communism that suppresses initiative and individuality. Instead, what is needed is a system that reflects the natural needs and aspirations of human beings.
Such a system must:
Recognise the central importance of human dignity as a universal foundation.
Encourage healthy competition for progress and innovation, while preventing destructive rivalries.
Promote shared prosperity and collective responsibility, rather than domination by a few powers or ideologies.
Only an order built on these principles can be truly acceptable and necessary for humanity today. It must balance economic dynamism with social justice, global cooperation with national sovereignty, and collective security with individual freedom. In this lies the path toward a sustainable and humane global system.
- Inclusivity is essential: Major states, particularly India, must be given their rightful place in any new structure.
- Caution over haste: Rapid restructuring will generate instability; gradual reform of global institutions is preferable.
- Support for stability, not extremism: Reliance on fragile or extremist states like Pakistan undermines long-term security.
- Preserve the role of the dollar: While diversification is inevitable, sudden challenges to the dollar’s dominance risk economic collapse.
- Strengthen multilateral institutions: Instead of sidelining the United Nations, efforts should focus on reforming and empowering it.
The world stands at a crossroads. Whether under the American-led order or a China-Russia alternative, the exclusion of key actors such as India and the reliance on unstable states like Pakistan will only fuel extremism, terrorism, and instability. Efforts to weaken the U.S. dollar and diminish American power may appear attractive to challengers, but they carry the seeds of global economic and strategic chaos.
A sustainable world order cannot be built on haste, exclusion, or narrow national ambitions. It must rest on inclusivity, cooperation, and respect for democratic values. Otherwise, humanity faces a future of fragmentation, insecurity, and endless rivalry. The international community must act wisely to avoid the perils of reckless realignment and to shape an order that serves not just great powers but the collective good of humankind.