Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The US’s global primacy has been achieved since the end of World War Two, to varying degrees, as denoted in the literature. This scholarship focus however, has been on the political prowess of the US in achieving and maintaining hegemony. In a departure from this point, this paper argues that the US has been able to achieve global primacy through a realization and manipulation of Washington, DC’s control and influence over the increasingly globalized financial system, by examining the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) case study. Indeed, the developments leading up to the JCPOA demonstrated how the US sought to coerce states and actors in the international system to pressure Iran into signing the agreement through economic means. This is achieved through an assessment of interviews with government representatives and experts on the matter, policy documents, press releases, scholarly work, and a quantitative analysis of official governmental database sourced material. Consequently, this paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the US influence over the globalized financial system, in the context of linking the theoretical concepts to the empirical developments that took place in the JCPOA case study. Thereby advancing the theoretical, scholarly, and case study scholarship on the issue.