The 1944 Bretton Woods Conference sought to establish a new international monetary order to prevent the economic volatility that characterized the interwar period. At the heart of the debate was the tension between national sovereignty and global stability. The resulting system pegged major currencies to the U.S. dollar, which was in turn convertible to gold. However, by the late 1960s, the system strained under the weight of U.S. inflation and trade deficits. In 1971, President Nixon made the unilateral decision to suspend the dollar’s convertibility into gold, effectively ending the Bretton Woods era. This move was executed without the prior consensus of the International Monetary Fund or European allies, marking a pivot toward a floating exchange rate regime. Critics argued this action undermined international trust, while proponents claimed it was a necessary response to preserve domestic economic interests against an inflexible global framework.