It can be hard to keep up with the United States government’s sanctions imposed against countries, organizations, and individuals across the world. There are just so many sanctions against so many targets. And each year it seems that the US sanctions reach expands.
Over at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), Michael Galant and Pedro Labayen Herrera provide an informative monthly rundown of changes in US sanctions, as well as analysis of newly examined effects of US sanctions. You can find the January update — with a focus on US sanctions in regard to Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela — here. An archive of previous editions of the “CEPR Sanctions Watch” is available here.
An interesting aspect of the January update is discussion of how the changeover from the Joe Biden presidency to the Donald Trump presidency is affecting US sanctions. Changes include Trump reversing some last-minute easing of sanctions Biden provided regarding Cuba, Trump potentially choosing to employ “maximum pressure” in sanctions toward Iran as a possible prelude to attempted negotiations with Iran, Trump threatening to add yet more sanctions on the already very heavily sanctioned Russia if the Russia government refuses to negotiate an end to the Ukraine War, Trump ending sanctions previously imposed by Biden against some Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and Trump signaling he may restart diplomatic efforts with North Korea while his Secretary of State Marco Rubio comments that no amount of sanctions could deter North Korea leader Kim Jong Un from developing the nation’s nuclear weapons capacity.
The January update also does an admirable job of describing some of the harms people abroad suffer as a result of US sanctions. Sanctions impose substantial harms on ordinary people just trying to live their lives. Sanctions bring hardships such as unemployment, sickness, and despair. Details of such sad results for people living in multiple targeted countries are provided in the January update.
Hopefully, one day US sanctions will be a thing of the past. Until then, the CEPR Sanctions Watch carries out an important task detailing effects of and changes in US sanctions.
