Why economic sanctions never work

The purpose of economic sanctions was aptly summarised back in 1960 by a US State Department official in a secret memo on Cuban sanctions ‘to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.’ Twenty years later, the CIA concluded that ‘economic sanctions… have not met any of their objectives’. Worse, the measures strengthened the regime, providing Castro with ‘a scapegoat for all kinds of domestic problems’.

That pattern has endured. Sanctions result in hardship for the sanctioned population, as exemplified by the half-million toll on Iraqi children during the 1990s, while the sanctioned nation’s ruling elite escapes unscathed and diverts any possible local disaffection among the immiserated populace against the sanctioning powers. In 2022, the sanctions on Putin’s regime have backfired more spectacularly than usual. Not only has the Russian economy not collapsed; but the sanctioneers, principally the Europeans, are themselves in an accelerating economic downslide, marked by rising inflation, in particular catastrophic energy costs consequent on sanctions against Russian oil and gas.