Payment systems' changing role from economic growth to the new foreign policy lever

This paper analyzes governments' usage of payment systems to achieve non-economic policy objectives. Payment systems are primarily thought to function to maximize economic growth. The U.S. dollar's status as world reserve currency provides America a unique ability to use the payment system to achieve national objectives besides economic growth. America has increasingly relied on the payment system to achieve non-economic objectives, mostly in the realm of foreign policy but not exclusively. The paper analyzes the growing usage of payment systems as a tool for projecting international power and achieving domestic political goals, with a focus on the Western response to Russia's recent invasion of Ukraine. The paper concludes by discussing the ramifications of increased reliance on the payment system for the projection of American foreign policy, including China's development of an alternative payment system and the rise of cryptocurrency as a new payment system.