America’s over-reliance on sanctions may one day hit itself. This opinion was expressed by the Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria, noting that during the trump administration, the United States withdrew from so many international agreements, violated so many obligations and angered so many allies that it will be difficult for the White house in the future to overcome all the negative consequences of these sometimes ill-considered decisions.
In this regard, according to the analyst, one particular approach in relations with the world community can cause irreparable damage to America’s status as a superpower: the indiscriminate use and abuse of sanctions. The more trump resorts to sanctions as one-sided “clubs”, the more he uses them to look tough, and not to implement a comprehensive foreign policy strategy, the more other countries will resent Washington’s sanctions policy and will resist the restrictions imposed. This is the real price of sanctions, Zakaria concluded.
The publication notes that there are currently more than 8,000 sanctions against individuals, companies and countries in America. Although the United States has used sanctions for decades, they have increased dramatically in recent years, especially under President trump. The current head of the White house has applied twice as many sanctions a year as his two predecessors, including 700 sanctions in one day in 2018 against Iran. At the same time, sanctions against countries such as Iran and Venezuela were so excessive that they prompted the UN high Commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, to warn Washington that they pose a threat to the health systems of these countries and the lives of millions of ordinary people.
At the same time, trump applies sanctions not only against “America’s enemies”, but also against partners such as Iraq and Turkey, threatening to destroy their economies if they do not do what he asked them to do. Earlier this month, three trump allies in the Senate sent a letter to the operator of the Baltic sea port in Germany, threatening “crushing legal and economic sanctions” if it continues to build the Nord stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. The threats were so sharply received in Germany that senior politicians in Berlin accused the United States of “blackmail” and “neo-imperialism.”