For more than 200 years, the U.S. has been imposing sanctions on countries around the world. Using the vast economic powers, it amassed from the 1800s, during and after the two World Wars[1], it used sanctions to achieve its foreign policy goals. So far, it has sanctioned a total of 20,931 entities and individuals, earning the title of Global Emperor of Sanctions.
Its most recent imposition was on 31 March 2025, when the U.S. imposed sanctions on six Chinese and Hong Kong individuals, it said were involved in undermining Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms and autonomy[2]. This is part of the U.S. crusade to “protect democracy” around the world – and specifically to step up the pressure against its geopolitical rival, China.
China is just one of 31 countries that currently faces sanctions from the U.S. Various entities and individuals are targeted, for reasons ranging from “human rights violations” to corruption and activities that undermine “democratic processes.”
Americans have honed their sanctions over the centuries. This tool was used by the U.S. as early as 1807, when the United States Embargo Act stopped all trade with European countries during the war of the Fourth Coalition between Britain and France[3]. It was later replaced in 1809 as an embargo, only on Britain and France,[4] after it failed to achieve the desired result.
It was improved over the decades. After World War I, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson described sanctions as a tool “that brings a nation to its senses, just as suffocation removes from the individual, all inclination to fight.”[5] Sanctions were imposed on Japan on 26 July, 1941, by way of an embargo on U.S. exports to Japan and freezing of Japanese assets held in the U.S.[6] Dealing with shortages due to the embargo, Japan decided to take military action and attacked Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941, dragging the U.S. into World War II[7].
During the Cold War in the early 1950s and 60s, the importance of sanctions grew, and it became a prominent tool used in the rivalry against Communism and the Soviet Union. In 1962, President Kennedy imposed a full trade embargo against Cuba [8] to coerce Fidel Castro to step down and replace the communist system for a democratic one. To date, the embargo on Cuba continues, and promises Washington, will not be lifted until Cuba forgoes communism.
The U.S. sanctions are now an art and a science. They have evolved from full embargoes to targeted sanction programmes whose stated goal is ‘regime change’ – an example being the financial sanctions imposed on entities and individuals in Belarus.[9] Currently, the U.S.’ expansive sanctions cover 29% of the global economy and 40% of global oil reserves.[10]
This map shows the number of countries sanctioned by the U.S. The chief formulator and executor is the Treasury Department, which works in tandem with the Department of State. Together, they have a clutch of sanctions and add new ones regularly. The sanctions fall under three main categories: primary, in which an entire country is considered a threat to U.S. interests; issue-based, which targets specific issues like “terrorism” or “human rights violations,” and lastly, secondary, which penalises countries that help the first two categories circumvent their sanctions, despite being no real threat to the U.S, like Malaysia. Sanctions can also be imposed overnight through Executive Orders.
The most sanctioned country by the U.S. today is Russia, with seven statutory sanctions on over 9,000 entities and individuals. The least sanctioned is Ethiopia, with two statutory sanctions on eight entities and individuals. The total number of individuals sanctioned include various heads of state, many of whom are already dead, such as former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The G7 countries typically follow the U.S. down the sanctions path, even if no real threat is posed to them, as in the case of Myanmar[11].
The sanctions are almost never lifted. A few exceptions are Iraq and Libya – and the recent announcement of Syria – where regime change was achieved. India was targeted for its nuclear tests on 18 June, 1998, but was given an exemption after the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement was signed in 2008. The United Nations follows the U.S.’ lead in sanctioning countries. The UN Security Council has 14 ongoing sanctions[12] programmes against countries and entities that are enforced by the U.S. along with its own unilateral sanctions.
Deepika Narayan, Rayomand Bhacka and Adam Wearne are former interns, Gateway House.
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References:
[1] Coates, Benjamin. “The United States and International Sanctions.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. 18 Jun. 2024. https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-1096.
[2] Al Jazeera. “US Slaps Sanctions on Top Chinese, Hong Kong Officials for Rights Abuses.” Al Jazeera, March 31, 2025. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/31/us-slaps-sanctions-on-top-chinese-and-hong-kong-officials-over-abuses.
[3] Knott, Stephen F. “The Embargo Act.” Teaching American History. Accessed May 15, 2025. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/the-embargo-act/.
[4] “The Embargo and New England: A Presidential Dilemma, 15 March 1809 (Editorial Note).” National Archives and Records Administration. Accessed May 15, 2025. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/03-01-02-0056.
[5] Mulder, Nicholas. “The History of Economic Sanctions as a Tool of War.” Yale University Press, February 24, 2022. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2022/02/24/the-history-of-economic-sanctions-as-a-tool-of-war/.
[6] “The Path to Pearl Harbor: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans.” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. Accessed May 15, 2025. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/path-pearl-harbor.
[7] “Japan, China, the United States and the Road to Pearl Harbor, 1937–41.” U.S. Department of State. Accessed May 15, 2025. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/pearl-harbor.
[8] “Cuba Sanctions.” U.S. Department of State. Accessed May 15, 2025. https://www.state.gov/cuba-sanctions/.
[9] Davis, Stuart (2023). Sanctions as War: Anti-Imperialist Perspectives on American Geo-Economic Strategy. Haymarket Books. p. 274; Wilpert, Gregory. “Chapter 16 The US War on Venezuela”. In Sanctions as War, (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2021).
[10] Clifton, Eli. “Dedollarization Is Here, like It or Not.” Responsible Statecraft, May 24, 2023. https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/05/24/dedollarization-is-here-like-it-or-not/.
[11] “Myanmar Generals under Renewed Pressure after G7 Condemnation, Sanctions.” Deccan Herald, February 23, 2021. https://www.deccanherald.com/world/myanmar-generals-under-renewed-pressure-after-g7-condemnation-sanctions-954610.html.
[12] “Sanctions.” United Nations. Accessed May 15, 2025. https://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en/sanctions/information#:~:text=Since%201966%2C%20the%20Security%20Council,Democratic%20Republic%20of%20the%20Congo%2C.