Sanctions are now a central tool of governments’ foreign policy

IN 2016 JACK LEWOFAC, America’s then treasury secretary, reflected on how his country had, over decades, “refined our capacity to apply sanctions effectively”. But he also gave a warning: overuse “could undermine our leadership position within the global economy, and the effectiveness of our sanctions themselves”.If the message was “proceed with caution”, it was lost on Donald Trump, who became president soon after. The screw was turned against , , , and others. The steady increase in sanctions “proved to be a rare constant” on Mr Trump’s watch, says Adam Smith of Gibson Dunn, a law firm. During Mr Trump’s four-year term, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (), which oversees American sanctions programmes, targeted roughly twice as many entities and individuals a year as it had during the two-term presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama (see chart).