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What is the meaning of monetary power in world politics? What distinguishes power in the context of monetary relations, I argue, is its link to the problem of balance-of-payments disrequilibrium. The central issue is the distribution of the burden of adjustment to external imbalance. Monetary power is best understood as being dual in nature: the Power to Delay, which is largely a function of each country’s international liquidity position, comprising both owned reserves and borrowing capacity; and the Power to Deflect, which has its source in more fundamental structural variables. The Power to Delay is limited only by a government’s appetitie for reserves and by the willingness of foreign agents to lend. The Power to Deflect is limited by a country’s underlying attributes and endowments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]