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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.
The Sanctions Age
Episode 1: Saleha Mohsin
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 institution playing a critical role in US national security. At the heart of this transformation was cast of characters—legislators and bureaucrats—who realised the immense power that the U.S. government could wield through the use of sanctions, including the power to wage economic war.
Saleha Mohsin has covered the Treasury Department for Bloomberg since 2016. Her new book, tilted, Paper Soldiers: How the Weaponization of the Dollar Changed the World Order, was published last week and draws on interviews with more 100 current and former officials and diplomats.
The Sanctions Age is hosted by Esfandyar Batmanghelidj. The show is produced by Spiritland Productions and is supported by a grant from the Hollings Center for International Dialogue.
To receive an email when new episodes are released, access episode transcripts, and read Esfandyar's notes on each episode, sign-up for the The Sanctions Age newsletter on Substack: https://www.thesanctionsage.com/