in reality , it is decided by the Central banks and the combination of the military power and the influence of a particular country
the US , for example , can print trillions of dollars and "sell" them around the world for resources
i.e. basically , you give , say Russia money for their oil and then they have to buy your treasuries for a fixed percentage of what they received , increasing the US debt
the countries that refuse to do so or are trying to oust dollars from their systems end up like Lybia , Iraq , Venezuela and other countries ( usually rich in oil or any other resource and suffering from an acute lack of democracy , according to the civilized world )