Russia is testing the West's favorite weapon

The unprecedented sanctions the West imposed on Russia have hobbled its economy and are hurting the global system, too. But their primary purpose, arguably, is to stop the fighting. And that's not yet happening.

Why it matters: Sanctions are increasingly one of the go-to tools in American foreign policy, all over the world — that doesn't mean they always work.

• "Have sanctions given Putin a powerful incentive to cut a deal? Yes. But is that incentive strong enough for Putin to actually end the war? That's doubtful," said Edward Fishman, a former sanctions policy official during the Obama administration and now a Fellow at Columbia's Center on Global Energy Policy.

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