As 2021 comes to a close, the international community faces several emerging humanitarian and security catastrophes—even beyond the global pandemic that has gripped the world for two years. Each of these crises is vastly different from the others—but the U.S. has responded to all of them with the same political tool: economic sanctions. In the case of Ethiopia, President Joe Biden has threatened to impose sanctions on members of both sides of the conflict, despite doubts about whether doing so would substantially affect either side. With Russia, Biden announced in early December that he was considering additional sanctions against members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, in an attempt to prevent an invasion of Ukraine. Indeed, as Charli Carpenter wrote in her WPR column last week, there is a case to be made that sanctions by the U.S. and its allies have condemned many millions of Afghans to starvation.

Source: The North Africa Journal December 17, 2021 14:01 UTC