The beginning of this decade was marked by a high degree of instability in the political domain, while the COVID-19 pandemic has escalated into a health and socio-economic crisis of global proportions. Pandemics, economic crisis, wars and the Anthropocene are crises that are mutually reinforcing, yet are studied separately by academic science. These socio-economic and political instabilities are symptoms of a systemic disease that is causing a rapid decline in global socio-economic complexity. Therefore, the main research question of this article is whether the main, fundamental cause of instability in the world can be found in the US monetary system. The paper is designed to use mixed methods to identify and analyse the so-called missing links between political and socio-economic instability. In conclusion, we present the long-term effects of a collapsing petrodollar monetary system with and on pandemics and abrupt climate change, respectively.
