Bretton Woods Reloaded: Washington’s New War on the Global South

By Prince Kapone, Weaponized Information – April 23, 2025

In what can only be described as a soft coup attempt on the economic sovereignty of the Global South, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has called on the IMF and World Bank to ‘refocus’ on their core missions. But make no mistake—this ain’t about economic stability. It’s about restoring the imperial leash.

Bessent’s rhetoric about eliminating “vanity projects” like climate and gender initiatives is pure empire logic. When the IMF even flirts with anything approaching justice—say, funding climate resilience or social equity—it risks destabilizing the financial apartheid that keeps the Global South subordinate. And Washington is having none of that. Bessent wants the IMF back in the business of austerity, debt peonage, and structural adjustment—things the U.S. politely calls “fiscal discipline.”

This is a reboot of the original Bretton Woods doctrine—white-tie economic warfare dressed up as development. Only this time, it’s being repackaged for a multipolar era where the BRICS+ bloc, South-South cooperation, and de-dollarization are threatening U.S. financial hegemony. Washington’s answer? Clamp down on the very institutions it created to manage the old imperial order.

According to Bessent, the IMF and World Bank should double down on “macro fundamentals.” That’s code for: get back to bullying poor nations into cutting education budgets, selling off natural resources, privatizing everything from water to healthcare, and handing over central bank independence to international creditors. It’s the same playbook used to strangle economies in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia since the 1980s—and now they want it again, dressed in 2025 fintech suits and digital SDRs.

This is why the Global South must accelerate the push for a new economic architecture—one that is not dictated by Washington, not enforced by the IMF, and not brokered through the halls of Davos. We need currency sovereignty, reparations for colonial extraction, climate justice funded by the North, and an international order not built on debt, coercion, and military-backed markets.

Weaponized Information is crystal clear: Bessent’s remarks are not technocratic adjustments. They are ideological warfare. This is about disciplining the rebellious periphery, recentering Wall Street in global capital flows, and ensuring that the global plantation remains profitable—no matter how many countries burn in the process.

The IMF and World Bank do not need reform. They need to be dismantled and replaced with institutions rooted in justice, mutual aid, and liberation economics. Because the only thing worse than a world without the Bretton Woods system—is a world where it still rules unchallenged.