Dhaka, May 16 -- For decades, economic sanctions have been among the most powerful instruments of global influence. By controlling access to finance, markets, and technology, the United States has used its dominance over the dollar-based system to project power worldwide.

But that power is no longer absolute. As sanctions have expanded in scale and frequency, they have produced an unintended consequence: a gradual redesign of the global system itself. Countries seeking to circumvent or minimise the impact of sanctions have resorted to adaptive mechanism. Power, when overused, invites adaptation. And when such adaptation becomes systemic, it begins to transform the very structure of power itself.

In the ongoing tensions between the Unite...