Following U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s comments that U.S. sanctions regimes placed on Iran are not working, C&SN’s Associate Director for Policy & Advocacy, Ashleigh Subramanian-Montgomery, underscores the ineffective track record of U.S. sanctions regimes in meeting their stated U.S. foreign policy objectives. She highlights the suffering U.S. sanctions impose on civilians and the numerous adverse impacts they have on civil society across the globe, highlighting examples from Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Russia, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Cuba. She argues that it’s time for a sanctions rethink, proposing a number of policy solutions, including reporting mechanisms to measure and monitor sanctions’ impacts as essential for holding the Biden administration accountable to revamping their strategy and living up to their promise of a human rights based U.S. foreign policy.
Read the full article published on Responsible Statecraft.