In Max Harris’s review of two new books about US economic might and the dollar’s global dominance (“Top dollar”, Books, Life & Arts, March 15), the author asks “whether sanctions have come up short because of strategic mistakes or design flaws, or if they never had a chance of accomplishing anything more”.
Harris poses the question after explaining that while the US has increasingly used economic weapons like sanctions, their impact has been mixed against the likes of Russia.
History shows sanctions have bolstered targeted regimes, forced economic adaptation rather than political change, or simply prolonged the status quo. Where they have been deemed successful, studies reveal other types of pressure (military, diplomatic etc) have often also been involved.
In the case of Russia, western sanctions between 2014 and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago were a toothless exercise in geopolitical cosplay. Not only were they weak in practice, they were devoid of a broader strategy and used in an ad hoc fashion. At the time, criticism was dismissed as part of a desire to be soft on Russia instead of a genuine warning about their potential distorted value. The reality of any necessary conversations about arming Ukraine or reducing energy dependence on Moscow were buried. The picture has changed since 2022 with the west taking a tougher line, but the fundamental limits of sanctions against a country like Russia (autocratic, paranoid, resilient) cannot be waved away.
Harris’s question about sanctions gets to the heart of what often makes them confusing — there is simply no agreed template to measure success. If sanctions do not coerce, they can still punish. If they do not deter they can still act as a signal, or even a rallying point. The problem is that all these have different timelines and expectations, and the debate over how to weigh the importance of each remains unresolved. The Russia experience over the past decade offers plenty of lessons for the use of sanctions. Whether they are learnt, only time will tell.
Lindsay Mackenzie
Dumfries, Scotland, UK
