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The Sanctions Age
The Sanctions Age is a podcast that explores how sanctions are changing the world.
Twenty years ago, the U.S. Department of Treasury had imposed sanctions on fewer than 1,000 companies and individuals. Today, more than 10,000 entities have been targeted.
Leaders around the world are imposing sanctions in response to wars, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, human rights violations, and technological competition. As a result, a growing list of countries are targeted by sanctions, export controls, and investment restrictions, including China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and Syria.
The Sanctions Age invites the people who understand sanctions best—economists, historians, lawyers, policymakers, and journalists—to explain their use and significance. Understanding sanctions is the key to understanding politics and economics today.
We are living in The Sanctions Age.
Episodes
21 episodes
Huawei's Thirty-Year Battle With U.S. Sanctions
Few companies better embody the promise and peril of China’s rise than Huawei. For nearly three decades, Huawei has steadily climbed towards the peak of the global telecommunications industry—first as a supplier of telecom infrastructure, then ...
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Season 2
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Episode 11
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51:16
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Why Sanctions on Iran 'Snapped Back'
Last week, the host of The Sanctions Age, Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, was interviewed by Derek Davison for an episode of American Prestige, a podcast that takes a comprehensive look at American foreign policy and international af...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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1:14:56
Why Oil Sanctions No Longer Work
Few sanctions have been used as aggressively as oil sanctions. These measures are meant to hit oil producing “rogue states” where it hurts, starving governments of vital revenues and forcing changes in policy. But look around the world today an...
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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53:44
Russia’s Commitment to Austerity Under Sanctions
Russia is one of the world’s largest economies. It’s a top energy exporter and a major supplier of wheat, fertilizers, wood, and metals. Since the invasion of Ukraine, Western governments have tried to squeeze Russia’s revenues through unpreced...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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49:27
How Sanctions Hit a Small Mining Town
The small Guatemalan town of El Estor was once a bustling mining hub, home to two major nickel mines that provided thousands of jobs and sustained the local government. In 2022, U.S. sanctions shuttered those mines almost overnight, triggering ...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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50:45
The Shadow of Sanctions in Syria
On December 8, 2024, Bashar Al-Assad fled Syria, bringing an end to the 13-year civil war that had devastated the country. Syrians who had endured years of conflict and deprivation, took to the streets in celebration. They were suddenly able to...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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50:56
How to Get Off the Sanctions List
There is a powerful office in the Treasury Department called the Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC. You could argue that the officials in OFAC are the most powerful government functionaries in the world. They are the functionaries who s...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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47:48
Reporting from Sanctioned Countries
Covering sanctions is complicated. Editors commissioning reports from countries like Iran, Russia, and Venezuela mainly want stories that focus on security or political issues, but on the ground, economic disruptions are what everyone is talkin...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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54:41
How Sanctions are Spurring Chinese Innovation
Over the past several years, the United States has escalated its use of sanctions and export controls in the context of growing strategic competition with China. A central goal has been to contain China’s rise in high-tech industries—especially...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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43:12
How Sanctions Kill
In the 1990s, UN sanctions imposed on Iraq led to a humanitarian crisis, with reports of a rapid increase in excess mortality, especially among children. In the early 2000s, policymakers responded to this crisis by vowing to use “smart sanction...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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51:14
Trump's Approach to Economic Statecraft
Edward Fishman on Trump's approach to economic statecraft.The world is still reeling from Trump’s announcement of major retaliatory tariffs targeting all of America’s trading partners, which came back in April. First, Trump announ...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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51:48
The Humanitarian Consequences of Sanctions
Erica Moret on the humanitarian harms of sanctions.In just about every country that has been targeted by a major sanctions program—including Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Venezuela, to name a few—we can observe significant humanita...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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48:23
How American Regulators Captured Global Banks
Stephen Fallon on how American regulators captured global banks.US authorities have taken advantage of the unique position of the dollar in the global economy to exercise significant control over the global financial system. When...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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47:15
Intensifying Economic Competition Between the U.S. and China
Gerard DiPippo on the intensifying economic competition between the United States and China.When the White House recently announced it would increase tariffs on a range of Chinese goods, it used striking language to explain why t...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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47:33
How Global CEOs Navigate the Sanctions Landscape
Henry Smith on how global CEOs are navigating the sanctions landscape. In recent decades, multinational companies have pursued market opportunities around the world, creating complex supply chains and financial structures in the ...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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43:42
The Challenges of Peacebuilding After Sanctions
Delaney Simon on the challenges of peacebuilding in the wake of sanctions.Sanctions are not meant to last forever. When diplomatic negotiations bring a dispute or conflict to an end, it may be time to lift sanctions imposed in re...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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41:52
Economic War and Economic Peace
Maximilian Hess and Nicholas Mulder on economic war and economic peace.Maximilian Hess and Nicholas Mulder have spent a lot of time thinking about economic weapons and economic war, especially in the context of Ukraine.The...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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49:52
How Firms Adapt to Sanctions
Javad Shamsi on how firms adapt to sanctions.The U.S. sanctions on Iran target sectors across the country’s economy, including the energy, manufacturing, and banking sectors. In addition, hundreds of Iranian companies have been d...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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49:04
How States Evade and Undermine Sanctions
Daniel McDowell and Maria Shagina on how states evade and undermine sanctions.The stakes around sanctions circumvention have never been higher. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has made sanctions evasion a matter of life or death. ...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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44:28
Weaponizing Interdependence in a Globalized World
Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman on weaponizing Interdependence in a globalized world. In 2019, Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman published a paper titled “Weaponized Interdependence,” which quickly became one of the most widely c...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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49:22
How the Strong Dollar Became the Weaponized Dollar
Saleha Mohsin on how the strong dollar became the weaponized dollar.Over the last few decades, the Department of Treasury has transformed from an institution that managed the dollar, government budgets, and issued bonds into an in...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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36:26