Back in the day, the US was able to choke off countries economically, and then do coups, regime changes, color revolutions, and what have you. Nowadays it's becoming increasingly difficult to destabilize countries to the point where US is able to run regime change operations. This is also a self reinforcing phenomenon since the more countries break with US the more economic opportunities are available outside US control. In fact, I think we may be getting to the point now where it's the west that has managed to effectively sanction itself by cutting off so much trade with key countries that refuse to follow western orders. Hence why we're seeing western economies in a tailspin now while BRICS economies are actually growing.