Nicholas Mulder - Reserve Risk: The History of the Asset Freeze, 1939-2000

The Moynihan Institute and the Study of Global Politics series presents Nicholas Mulder from Cornell University.

In February 2022, Western countries responded to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine by immobilizing $300 billion in Russian reserves and foreign assets—in real terms, the largest asset freeze in more than a century. But where did this policy tool and its power come from?

This talk traces the history of the asset freeze back to its origins in the interwar era and the period of sterling hegemony, shows how sterling and dollar asset freezes influenced and helped break the global financial order under Bretton Woods, and uncovers how the oil crises drove de-dollarization in the 1970s and 1980s. It argues that asset freezing has never been an obvious or uncontested use of reserve currency privilege and has had unpredictable effects.

Nicholas Mulder, an assistant professor and Milstein Faculty Fellow at Cornell University, specializes in modern European, political and economic history. His acclaimed book, “The Economic Weapon” (2022), explores the interwar rise of sanctions and their profound impact on global relations. Mulder’s forthcoming book, “The Age of Confiscation,” examines property seizures across pivotal historical shifts.

He has published extensively on European and international affairs in leading outlets such as The Economist, The New York Times, and Foreign Affairs. He also mentors Ph.D. projects on international history, with a focus on political economy and war.