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By (author) Demarais, Agathe

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Backfire explores the surprising ways sanctions affect multinational companies, governments, and ultimately millions of people around the world. Drawing on interviews with experts, policy makers, and people in sanctioned countries, Agathe Demarais examines the unintended consequences of the use of sanctions as a diplomatic weapon.

Sanctions have become the go-to foreign policy tool for the United States. Coercive economic measures such as trade tariffs, financial penalties, and export controls affect large numbers of companies and states across the globe. Some of these penalties target nonstate actors, such as Colombian drug cartels and Islamist terror groups; others apply to entire countries, including North Korea, Iran, and Russia. U.S. policy makers see sanctions as a low-cost tactic, but in reality these measures often fail to achieve their intended goals—and their potent side effects can even harm American interests.

Backfire explores the surprising ways sanctions affect multinational companies, governments, and ultimately millions of people around the world. Drawing on interviews with experts, policy makers, and people in sanctioned countries, Agathe Demarais examines the unintended consequences of the use of sanctions as a diplomatic weapon. The proliferation of sanctions spurs efforts to evade them, as states and firms seek ways to circumvent U.S. penalties. This is only part of the story. Sanctions also reshape relations between countries, pushing governments that are at odds with the U.S. closer to each other—or, increasingly, to Russia and China.

Full of counterintuitive insights spanning a wide range of topics, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Iran’s COVID response and China’s cryptocurrency ambitions, Backfire reveals how sanctions are transforming geopolitics and the global economy—as well as diminishing U.S. influence. This insider’s account is an eye-opening, accessible, and timely book that sheds light on the future of sanctions in an increasingly multipolar world.

Table of contents
Preface

I: Sanctions Genesis
1. From Embargoes to Sanctions: A Brief History
2. Hitting Where It Hurts: The Era of Financial Sanctions
3. Hit and Miss: Why Sanctions Sometimes Work, but More Often Fail

II: Sanctions Crossfire
4. Collateral Damage: When Sanctions Kill
5. Sanctions Overreach: When Foreign Firms Get Caught in the Crossfire
6. Sanctions Overkill: When sanctions Crash Global Commodities Markets
7. Sanctions Disputes: When Russian Gas Pipelines Divide Allies

III: Sanctions Blues
8. Sanctions Busting, Avoidance Schemes from U.S. Friends and Foes
9. Doing Down the Dollar: The Rise of Digital Coins and Other Reserve Currencies
10. High-tech Future: Are Export Controls the Sanctions of Tomorrow?
11. When Sanctions Work Too Well: Why Decoupling from China Would Backfire
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Review quote
Sanctions are in fashion. Trump used them with relish. Biden has deployed formidable ones against Russia. But do they work? And what are their side effects and long-term impact? These are critical questions, and Agathe Demarais”s excellent, clear-headed book has uncomfortable answers.

Review quote
Backfire is a balanced, fast-paced, and often surprising account of the growing influence that sanctions have had on businesses, economies, and people around the world over recent decades, highlighting their often unintended and self-defeating consequences as well as their rare successes.

Review quote
With the knowledge of an expert and the tight prose of a journalist, Agathe Demarais has written a fast-paced, well-articulated review of the difficulties, risks, an