U.S., EU, And UN Sanctions: Navigating The Divide For International Business

CHAPTER 1.

INTRODUCTION— THE GOLDEN AGE OF SANCTIONS

A. ''AN UNABASHED FAILURE'' TO WAR BY ANOTHER MEANS

Sanctions have become a ubiquitous policy tool, suggested as a ''solution'' to international and domestic crisis as varied as terrorism, corruption, and illegal immigration, and implemented by a range of jurisdictions; the United States remains the most enthusiastic purveyor of the tool, but Washington is being followed closely by policy makers in Brussels, London, Riyadh, Moscow, and Beijing.¹ Despite this, it is worthwhile remembering that it was not that long ago—and well into the early 2000s—that scholars and policy makers viewed sanctions as a broad-based failed tool of statecraft, often more likely to hurt policy objectives than to achieve them and increasingly apt to harm innocents rather than to exert pressure on their intended targets. How did we get here?