The United States of Sanctions

US foreign policy has always included tools of economic pressure.

Economic tools of coercion have long been arrows in the quiver of American diplomacy. At the time of its founding, the United States relied heavily on trade as a foreign policy tool because its military was small, relative to those of economic heavyweights like the United Kingdom.

More than two centuries on, America continues to use sanctions as a cudgel to confront issues such as nuclear proliferation, human rights violations and territorial aggression.

Sanctions have become a diplomatic cure-all fraught with problems.

Since the 2010s, US presidents...