Debate: Sanctions Don’t Work as a Tool of Foreign Policy
Intelligence Squared19 Marras 2025

Debate: Sanctions Don’t Work as a Tool of Foreign Policy

In partnership with GlobalSanctions.com, the world’s leading online resource for up to the minute information on sanctions and export controls worldwide. Sanctions have become one of the most widely used tools in modern foreign policy, imposed not only on states but also on individual leaders, oligarchs and corporations. From trade embargoes to asset freezes and travel bans, sanctions are deployed in response to everything from territorial aggression to human rights abuses. But do they actually work? Sanctions sceptics argue that they rarely achieve their goals and often inflict suffering on ordinary people while strengthening authoritarian regimes. Far from making unsavoury governments change course, they say, sanctions are little more than virtue signalling, allowing our leaders to appear resolute without doing the harder work of diplomacy or long-term strategic thinking. Proponents of sanctions counter that, when carefully targeted, sanctions can pressure both states and individuals without harming wider populations. Measures such as trade restrictions, freezing personal assets, grounding private jets and restricting access to international financial systems, they say, can deter bad behaviour, disrupt illicit networks and signal international resolve. Rather than abandoning sanctions altogether, we should focus on using them more intelligently and in conjunction with broader diplomatic strategies. Do sanctions work, or are they just political theatre? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jaksot(1537)

Does modern medicine need to drop the distinction between mental and physical health? With Professor Edward Bullmore

Does modern medicine need to drop the distinction between mental and physical health? With Professor Edward Bullmore

For centuries, mental and physical health have been divided - disorders of the mind and body have been treated as if they were poles apart. This deep-rooted division has shaped medicine, psychiatry, a...

24 Marras 202547min

Is Vivaldi Still the Soundtrack of the Seasons? With Dr Hannah French

Is Vivaldi Still the Soundtrack of the Seasons? With Dr Hannah French

Can music help us notice nature more deeply? In this episode, Dr Leah Broad speaks to broadcaster and author Dr Hannah French about the enduring influence and legacy of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Thi...

23 Marras 20251h 1min

What Stories Are Written in The Rock Beneath Us? With Dr Anjana Khatwa

What Stories Are Written in The Rock Beneath Us? With Dr Anjana Khatwa

How does the Earth remember its own history? In this episode, Professor Caroline Dodds Pennock speaks to award-winning Earth Scientist Dr Anjana Khatwa about the deep stories hidden within our landsc...

21 Marras 202533min

How does a nation’s language shape its identity? Hannah Kent on her year in Iceland

How does a nation’s language shape its identity? Hannah Kent on her year in Iceland

When Australian writer Hannah Kent first travelled to Iceland at the age of 17, she had never seen snow before, and didn’t speak a word of Icelandic. Living in a remote part of Iceland during the dark...

17 Marras 202545min

How To Lose Your Country, with Ece Temelkuran (Part Two)

How To Lose Your Country, with Ece Temelkuran (Part Two)

Temelkuran is a brilliant writer, finding humour, hope and humanity in the darkest corners of our current malaise.’ – BRIAN ENO Ece Temelkuran is the award winning Turkish writer and author who was f...

16 Marras 202533min

How To Lose Your Country, with Ece Temelkuran (Part One)

How To Lose Your Country, with Ece Temelkuran (Part One)

Temelkuran is a brilliant writer, finding humour, hope and humanity in the darkest corners of our current malaise.’ – BRIAN ENO Ece Temelkuran is the award winning Turkish writer and author who was f...

14 Marras 202537min

Why Are We So Addicted to Everything? With Nicklas Brendborg

Why Are We So Addicted to Everything? With Nicklas Brendborg

Are we living in a world designed to hijack our brains? In this episode, Dr Emma Yhnell speaks to international best-selling author Nicklas Brendborg about how supernormal stimuli have become the nor...

12 Marras 202547min

Suosittua kategoriassa Politiikka ja uutiset

uutiscast
aikalisa
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
politiikan-puskaradio
tervo-halme
rss-vaalirankkurit-podcast
rss-podme-livebox
viisupodi
rss-asiastudio
et-sa-noin-voi-sanoo-esittaa
otetaan-yhdet
rikosmyytit
the-ulkopolitist
radio-antro
rss-kaikki-uusiksi
rss-hyvaa-huomenta-bryssel
rss-raha-talous-ja-politiikka
rss-tasta-on-kyse-ivan-puopolo-verkkouutiset
rss-girls-finish-f1rst