—> So what does that leave as a possible global currency? Japan’s Yen? Britain’s Pound?
The Yuan at first to settle trade among larger BRIC nations (already started), and then a negotiated basket of currencies/commodity based currency as BRICS expands.
The swift system will have an alternative, banking will have other options, currency will have other options.
All because the USA and western nations have weaponized the financial system.
An acquaintance who works in finance in a major SE Asian financial hub (not China, you can probably guess the country) explained to me early on how SEA countries dependent on Russian oil (and some other) imports were getting around SWIFT and sanctions: the Chinese set up a series of banks to process payments in RMB. He said that use of SWIFT and sanctions to try to stop trade with Russia had accelerated the erosion of the dollar as reserve currency, and this was a slow process that was already underway, and that while the process was accelerated, it would hardly happen quickly.
His stance is that “market forces will find a way” — and that “weaponizing” (as you put it) SWIFT and the dollar has eroded trust and caused non-Western countries to be leery of complete dependence on them, hence seeking alternatives. Again, he stressed this won’t happen overnight, and seemed to be looking at least a decade or so out.