From Lord Palmerston to the Salisbury poisoning, from the Great Game to hybrid warfare — the longest undeclared conflict in modern history. The Second World War, as John le Carré observed, was merely a distraction.
Every major proxy war and covert operation funded by the US or USSR between 1947 and 1991. The two superpowers called this period "peace." The countries they fought in called it something else.
On de-dollarization, the history of reserve currencies, and why a decentralized monetary system might be the best strategic option the free world has left — even if it sounds like surrender.
Michele Rovatti · August 2026
Every reserve currency in history has ended the same way. Not with a declaration, not with a war, not with a formal ceremony of abdication — but with a slow, uneven erosion that the dominant power is always the last to fully acknowledge. The pound sterling did not collapse in 1944 at Bretton Woods. It had already been declining for thirty years. What Bretton Woods did was ratify what the markets already knew. The sun had been setting over sterling since 1914, and the British kept insisting it was still noon.
The question worth asking about the dollar in 2026 is not whether its dominance is eroding — it is — but whether the thing that replaces it will follow the historical pattern. Because there is a scenario, counterintuitive and underexamined, in which the United States does not lose the monetary order to China or to a BRICS alternative reserve currency. It loses it to a system that has no owner. And that outcome, which looks from one angle like American defeat, might from another angle be the shrewdest strategic move available.
On 28 February 2026, the US and Israel struck Iran. Within 48 hours, the Strait of Hormuz — 25% of the world's seaborne oil — was effectively closed. What followed was not just an energy crisis. It was a lesson in the limits of American power that every rival in the world took notes on.
Every active US sanctions program as of 2026, sorted by severity. When you sanction this many countries, the weapon starts to lose its edge — and the world starts building alternatives.
Every major People's Liberation Army deployment, border conflict, and military intervention beyond Chinese soil since the founding of the People's Republic. Sorted by outcome. Beijing calls all of them defensive.
Every nation admitted to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, from the founding twelve to the most recent members. Sorted by accession date. Each card is one country.