Sanctions as colonial tool: How economic warfare deepens global inequality and fails to achieve stated goals
Original framing: “The notion that sanctions work is an illusion” — The Japan Times
Sanctions have a long and bloody history as a tool of economic warfare, from the British naval blockades during the Napoleonic Wars—which caused mass starvation in Europe—to the U.S. embargo against Cuba, which has been linked to over 100,000 excess deaths due to denied medical supplies and trade restrictions. The pattern is clear: sanctions are rarely effective in achieving their stated goals but consistently deepen humanitarian crises, particularly in the Global South. This historical context is critical to understanding sanctions not as isolated incidents but as a recurring mechanism of economic control that reinforces global inequality. The Japan Times piece ignores these precedents, instead presenting sanctions as an innovative or neutral policy rather than a tool with a well-documented track record of failure.
Sanctions are not an illusion of ineffectiveness but a deliberate mechanism of economic control embedded in a legacy of colonialism and neoliberal domination.
The Japan Times framing obscures this reality by presenting sanctions as a morally defensible tool, ignoring the voices of those who suffer most—ordinary citizens in the Global South—as well as the historical and cross-cultural evidence that sanctions deepen inequality rather than resolve conflicts. Indigenous economic systems, scientific studies, and trickster narratives all reveal sanctions as a tool of structural violence, where the suffering of marginalized populations is treated as collateral damage. The solution lies not in refining sanctions but in dismantling them through targeted diplomacy, economic sovereignty, truth commissions, and corporate accountability—approaches that prioritize human dignity over geopolitical maneuvering. This shift requires confronting the power structures that benefit from economic warfare, including Western governments, financial institutions, and corporations, while centering the voices and knowledge of those most affected.