Nunn School Symposium Examines Dollar’s Challenged Global Role

Posted February 19, 2025

The U.S. dollar has long been unchallenged as the dominant global currency. Whether that will continue to be the case was the subject of the recent Nunn School Symposium, held at the Georgia Tech Alumni House.

The conclusion? While the dollar faces challenges, especially as a medium of exchange, its dominance in the global financial system is not under serious threat in the immediate future. 

The experts brought together by the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech said that frequent use of sanctions — which have significant implications for international trade and the international banking system — along with concerns about U.S. fiscal responsibility, certainly have contributed to rising interest in finding alternatives to the dollar.

President Donald Trump has threatened 100% tariffs against members of the “BRICS” alliance of emerging economies led by Brazil, Russia, India, and China if they choose to create their own currency as an alternative to the dollar. That could have a chilling effect, said Brian Grant, managing director and global head of financial crimes compliance operations and global head of sanctions compliance at Japanese bank MUFG.

Grant said he doubted China, the world’s second-largest economy, would step up either.

“I don’t actually think China particularly is ready or wants the ren to be a major global reserve currency that challenges the dollar,” he said.

Peter Harrell, nonresident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former senior director at National Security Council and the National Economic Council, said that closely working with U.S. allies is another way to stave off challenges to the dollar.

He pointed to the case of some countries that were dissatisfied with U.S. sanctions on Russia. Those countries nevertheless stuck with the dollar given the decision by European and other nations to hold with the U.S. on sanctions.

“The more we actually work with some of our like-minded allies, the more we create the continued dominance of the dollar that reduces the incentive from a very practical perspective for those countries to diversify,” Harrell said.

Other speakers at the Feb. 13 event included Zongyuan Zoe Liu, the Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations; Glen Sarvady, managing principal of payments strategy at 154 Advisors; and Mark Sobel, U.S. chair of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum and former deputy assistant secretary for international monetary and financial policy at the U.S. Treasury.

The symposium was supported by the Neal Family Endowment and the Arther Blank Family Foundation, which supports the Nunn School's Diplomats-in-Residence Program.  It was co-sponsored with the Atlanta Council on International Relations, Georgia Tech's Center for International Business Education and Research, and the World Affairs Council of Atlanta.