The Global Obsession With Sanctions - And What They Actually Achieve

If diplomacy is polite conversation and war is the screaming match, sanctions are that icy silent treatment countries give each other -the kind where you pretend everything is fine while inconveniently freezing someone’s bank accounts.

At their core, sanctions are tools used to restrict a country’s access to money, technology, trade, or global financial systems. No missiles, no troops ,just paperwork that hits harder than a plot twist in Succession. And in the last decade, sanctions have gone from a niche tool to the main character of foreign policy. The US, UK, and EU have all sharpened their sanctions regimes, especially post-2010s, using them to respond to issues like terrorism, human rights violations, nuclear programs, and full-scale military aggression.

Take the UK, for example. After Brexit, it didn’t just stroll out of the EU - it built its own independent sanctions framework, aiming to be faster, more targeted, and more flexible. From Russian oligarchs with suspiciously large yachts to individuals funding extremist groups, the UK has become a key player in shaping modern sanctions.

But here’s the tricky part: do they actually work? Sometimes yes — sanctions can squeeze economies, isolate elites, and send powerful political signals without firing a single bullet. Russia’s economy, Iran’s energy exports, and North Korea’s financial networks have all felt the burn. But the effectiveness isn’t guaranteed. Sanctions can push targeted countries to form new alliances, find creative loopholes, or rely on parallel markets. And the unintended fallout often hits civilians harder than leaders ,a moral dilemma no country can fully ignore.

Despite the mixed results, sanctions remain the go-to move because they sit in that sweet spot between “too soft” and “too violent.” They show action, send a message, and avoid global chaos (most of the time). They’re imperfect, complicated, and sometimes controversial… but in today’s world, they’re not going anywhere.

If anything, they’re only getting more popular. Call it global accountability. Call it economic pressure. Call it the world’s most passive-aggressive policy tool.

Either way, sanctions are here to stay — and they’ll keep shaping international politics more than we realise.