I really don’t know enough to know, but if all these countries that aren’t really friends with the west but have been using the dollar stop doing so, what interest does the west have in maintaining trade? I understand China gained it’s economic status because they were willing to do the labor and manufacturing the west didn’t want to. Are they hoping that if the west stops buying their stuff the global south will buy enough to make up for it?

what interest does the west have in maintaining trade?

It’s long been thought the only reason there’s been no WWIII is because countries that don’t necessarily like each other have created mutually beneficial trade deals together.

As long as the trade deals lead to better outcomes than war, these countries should maintain peace. For example, Australia recently purchased 8 advanced nuclear powered submarines for a cost of $368 billion. The main reason for the purchase is to protect their international trade routes from being shut down by China…who is their largest trading partner. Why would you spend so much money on military weapons to protect your trade with China, from China?? It’s because Australia wants to ensure China knows keeping their trade deals running is the most beneficial option for everyone.

It’s long been thought the only reason there’s been no WWIII is because countries that don’t necessarily like each other have created mutually beneficial trade deals together.

And then Russia decided to go to war regardless. I’m not sure whether this has shown us that war prevention based on mutual trade is an illusion, or that Russian economic difficulties prove that it works. Maybe time will tell, but in any case I’m not sure the dead will be happy that Russia’s economy will suffer.

I mean, it makes perfect sense that you’re not going to start a war for economic reasons if it’s worse than just trade, but what happens when someone decides that they want war for reasons other than economic. For example, country A has a lot of people with their main nationality in the bordering countries, and someone stirrs up nationalist sentiments and they want their country to ecompass all regions where their nationals live, regardless of economic benefits/drawbacks.