What actually happens behind the scenes during an international money transfer?

The following set of answers, answer just that. In all aspects. Read these and you will thoroughly understand how money transfers happen:

• Faisal Khan's answer to How does a remittance money transfer work? What are all the steps and who is involved?
• Faisal Khan's answer to How does money transfer between banks and different countries work?
  
• Faisal Khan's answer to What exactly happens when money is sent via Western Union versus a company like XOOM? What is the difference?
  
• Faisal Khan's answer to How does the settlement of payments work in banks? Specifically, how do payment systems that are connected to multiple banks actually settle the amount between two banks?
  
• Faisal Khan's answer to What exactly happens when a wire transfer is made? How does the money travel from the sender's account to the recipient's account? How much time does each step take? What regulatory measures are in place, if any?
  
• Faisal Khan's answer to How do Bitcoin remittances work?
  
• Faisal Khan's answer to Where are countries' bank accounts held?