Professor Carla Norrlöf specializes in international relations and international political economy. She researches the role of great powers, particularly the role of the United States, in world affairs. Norrlöf works at the intersection of economics and security. Her academic publications, op-ed commentary and policy reports can be found here.
Norrlöf continues to work on various themes connected to great power politics and international political economy: great power rivalry and international order, global currencies, sovereign debt, financial and trade interdependence.
Recent publications include Is COVID-19 the End of US Hegemony? Public Bads, Leadership Failures and Monetary Hegemony (International Affairs, 2020), The Security Foundations of Dollar Primacy (International Studies Perspectives, 2020), Raison de l’Hegemonie (The Hegemon’s Interest): Theory of the Costs and Benefits of Hegemony (Security Studies, 2019)
She is also writing on economic statecraft, especially the role of sanctions in policing international order and the sanctions impact on the dollar’s global role. Norrlöf’s November 2021 report Economic statecraft: Finance and money, which launched the Economic Statecraft Initiative with the GeoEconomics Center at the Atlantic Council details how great powers impose economic sticks and carrots to advance foreign policy goals and the new dynamics such actions provoke. Her September 2022 report for the Atlantic Council Will Economic Statecraft Threaten Western Currency Dominance and her February 2023 Foreign Affairs essay The Dollar Still Dominates: American Financial Power in the Age of Great-Power Competition examine the geopolitical determinants of the dollar’s global role.
Norrlöf has written on sanctions and interdependence, in the context of the Russia-Ukraine war for The Guardian Don’t be fooled: sanctions really are hurting Russia’s war against Ukraine, Foreign Affairs (The New Economic Containment), The Washington Post (Banning Russia from SWIFT is a Big Deal. But the Real Pain comes from Sanctions) and World Politics Review (A New Iron Curtain Splits Russia from the West).
Economics & Security
Visualizing Security Network: Double-click to zoom in on the US security umbrella. Click and drag bubbles to view country details or reposition the network. For ease of identification, regions are color-coded as follows: North America in violet blue, Europe in medium blue, South America in cobalt blue, Central America in light blue, Asia in turquoise, and Oceania in cyan (Source: Norrlöf adaptation of R code from Lihui Pan & data from ATOP)
For inquiries regarding additional projects, she can be reached via email.