Sanctions Become Strikes: The Dangerous Fusion of Financial and Military Power

Israel, Iran and the Future of Dollar Hegemony

Key Insights

• Israeli strikes on Iran’s South Pars gas field in targeted Chinese energy supplies – the first military enforcement of dollar hegemony

• Giovanni Arrighi’s theory of hegemonic decline predicted this: dominant powers go from production to finance to coercion as their power wanes

• China’s sanctions-evading oil trade with Iran – 1.5–1.7 million barrels daily through a 300-vessel dark fleet – created physical vulnerabilities that Israel exploited

• The dollar’s share of global reserves already fell from 71% (2000) to 57–59% (2024–25), accelerating after America froze $300bn in Russian reserves

• Taiwan represents the ultimate convergence: where semiconductor supply chains, financial systems and military strategy become inseparable

When Israeli jets struck Iran’s South Pars gas field in June 2025, they didn’t just hit energy infrastructure – they destroyed the physical foundations of China’s decade-long project to buy oil outside the dollar system. The message was unmistakable.

This wasn’t sanctions enforcement. It was something new and far more dangerous: the militarisation of the global financial system.