September 08, 2017
When Is It Time to End Sanctions Programs?
At the end of August, U.S. officials imposed new sanctions on Venezuela following the government’s crackdown on both the opposition and the country’s democratic institutions. The measures marked the fourth major expansion in U.S. sanctions programs this summer. (The others were against Iran, North Korea, and Russia.) With each set addressing different security threats, sanctions have been dubbed the “Swiss army knife of U.S. foreign policy” by the scholar Robert Kahn. Yet at a time when Washington has so many such programs in place, determining how best to wind down sanctions is perhaps more important than discussing when and how to impose them. If U.S. leaders want to use sanctions to change their targets’ policies, they need to plan for their eventual removal. Otherwise, Washington will lose credibility during negotiations and limit the mechanism’s effectiveness.
Read the full op-ed in Foreign Affairs.
More from CNAS
-
Tariffs & and the Defense Industrial Base with Becca Wasser, plus what’s new in the U.S.-China trade war
Podcast
Geoff and Emily debrief on the latest news in the U.S.-China trade talks. Becca Wasser, senior fellow and deputy director of the CNAS defense program, joins to talk about what...
By Emily Kilcrease, Geoffrey Gertz & Becca Wasser
-
U.S.-China Talks Continue | Bloomberg: Asia Trade
Video
Bloomberg TV is live from Tokyo and Sydney with Shery Ahn and Haidi Stroud-Watts, getting insight and analysis from Center for a New American Security’s Emily Kilcrease on U.S...
By Emily Kilcrease
-
Tell Me How This Trade War Ends
Commentary
Against this backdrop, Trump has turned the United States into a revisionist power seeking to shatter what remains of the economic order....
By Emily Kilcrease & Geoffrey Gertz
-
U.S.-India Trade Talks Show Progress, but Major Hurdles Remain, Says Strategist
Video
Rachel Ziemba, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, says the U.S. and India are making progress toward a trade deal, driven by shared geostrategic ...
By Rachel Ziemba
