ECONOMIC SANCTIONSThe Economic Weapon: The Growing Use of Sanctions as a Tool of War
The war in Ukraine has put economic sanctions in the global spotlight. In his book, Nicholas Mulder traces the first use of sanctions back to the Peloponnesian War, but says that it was only in the globalizing world of the 20th century that sanctions moved to center stage. Ironically, as the use of sanctions has surged, their chances of success have plummeted.
A review of Nicholas Mulder, The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War
The war in Ukraine has put economic sanctions in the global spotlight. The West’s sanctions on Russia are perhaps the most comprehensive ever imposed, limiting trade and investment, restricting energy imports from Russia, closing Western airspace to Russian flights, and freezing more than US$300 billion of central bank reserves and the assets of Russian oligarchs. Companies and investors have withdrawn from Russia in droves.
Russia has responded in kind, weaponizing its energy exports, closing its airspace to flights from countries imposing sanctions, and blocking shipping in the Black Sea.
The economic repercussions have been felt around the world. The sanctions and countersanctions have caused oil and gas prices to soar, stoking inflation and presaging an energy crisis later in the year when the northern hemisphere turns up the heating. In the European Union, inflation is already over 9%, with many countries planning to restrict energy use.
Russia’s blockade in the Black Sea has restricted Ukraine’s grain exports, pushing up global prices. The implications for grain-importing economies in Africa and Asia are particularly dire. Tentative steps have been taken to ease the blockade, but a global food crisis looks imminent.
The experience thus far raises questions about the effectiveness of sanctions. In Russia, the general population has taken a significant hit, while the impact on elites is less clear. Some outcomes were unexpected—for example, Russia’s reaping of the rewards of high energy prices which have left poor countries reeling.
Will the sanctions force Moscow to back down? The West claims that they are having the desired effect, limiting Russia’s ability to wage an extended war. Russia claims that the West is committing economic suicide.
In The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War, Nicholas Mulder, an assistant professor of European history at Cornell University, reviews the history of economic sanctions. Mulder traces the first use of sanctions back to the Peloponnesian War, when Athens in 432 BC imposed a commercial ban on merchants from Greece. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the use of blockades, embargos and sieges as tools of war gradually expanded.
