Economic Sanctions may not immediately change the behavior of the targeted country, but they also drain it and make other leaders think about their behavior. In a sense, their criticism has a right to exist. However, the case for limits is more compelling than many of the experts who reject them think. In any case, the role of punitive measures in policy The US is only growing.
As Bloomberg columnist Hal Brands writes, Washington is using sanctions reflexively, pursuing quixotic goals and thus undermining US power.
Scholars, experts and some politicians around the world warn that Washington is addicted to sanctions. The White House uses them, prominent figures say, for over-ambitious purposes, such as overthrowing objectionable rulers and authorities or forcing foreign leaders to change their very nature.
At the same time, critics say, America's sanctions mania runs the risk of forcing friends and foes alike to reduce their dependence on the dollar so as not to become the target of the wrath of the US Treasury.
Sanctions, from this point of view, have become a substitute for strategy: they allow useless demonstration of morality and prevent thoughtful solution to the problems of a complex world. As New York Times editors recently wrote, sanctions "could ultimately undermine America's efforts to promote peace, human rights, and democratic norms around the world." Clearly, efficiency requires restraint. If the U.S. applies sanctions inappropriately, on relatively minor occasions, it will be harder to convince key allies to agree to more important issues - mostly related to China.
As Brands writes, it is important to remember that sanctions can be successful in deterring future wrongdoing as well as changing current behavior. Indeed, US sanctions are unlikely to force the Venezuelan government to stop cracking down on political opposition. They will not force Russia to make peace with Ukraine in the near future, but they will definitely force Chinese President Xi Jinping to think about his behavior, the author is sure.
Punishment is playing an increasingly important role in the great power competition that will define our era. So, by and large, the US sanctions are not even directed against the Russian Federation or its people, but against others who want to repeat the path of Moscow, the observer concluded.