I am wondering if there is an aspect of this tension related to the sale of gas through Nord Stream 2 being conducted in Euro and not USD. Putin has been calling for gas sales to be denominated in Euro for some time. Partly this is due to finding a way around sanctions, but a bigger picture is potentially the US holding down the Euro as a store of value and for it to not take a higher share of international transactions at US expense. I am starting to think there are other layers to this story.
The book US economic statecraft for survival 1933—1991 explores this theme in a broader way by looking at:
"The actions and policies of the USA of interest here are those, which use economic means, or non-economic instruments directed at economic activities, for political, military or strategic reasons. The intention of such actions is to damage another state or states in some way; to bring about changes of policy; to enhance the power, influence and status of the USA, or its bargaining position—either in a tangible way, by keeping important resources for itself and/or by denying them to others, or, in an intangible way, by conveying messages to the targeted state, to non-aligned states, to allies, or to its own domestic constituency."
Another aspect I find interesting is the US perspective of Europe's maturity. It almost seems as the US exerts a parental extra-sovereign right over Europe (Papal control over the Holy Roman Empire leading to Westphalia comes to mind). Russia has been a part of European history for hundreds of years, an actor in continental history, but, in the words of Stillman and Pfaff, "tormented by the dynamism of European society". Europe knows Russia and Russia knows Europe, they are intertwined, and arguably separated to suit US interests. Europe has the political maturity to make independent decisions in respect of Russia, as individual countries and as a block; including the decision to create a pan-European army or to integrate Russia economically within Europe. The US seems to be tempering the rise of Europe itself including the Euro as a world currency.
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