Introduction: The Invisible War
1. When Society Is Sanctioned
2. When Politics Is Sanctioned
3. When Iran Was Sanctioned
4. When an Economy Is Sanctioned
5. What Sanctions Cost the United States
6. What Sanctions Cost Iran—and the World
Conclusion: Permanent Siege
Narges Bajoghli is an anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins SAIS. Vali Nasr is Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins SAIS. Djavad Salehi-Isfahani is Professor of Economics at Virginia Tech.Ali Vaez is the Director of the International Crisis Group Iran Project.
"There is no shortage of publications on the Iran sanctions, but it
is rare to see such detailed, serious work on this topic by highly
knowledgeable scholars. How Sanctions Work introduces a wealth of
information and perspectives not generally found in the existing
Western academic literature."
—Joy Gordon, author of Invisible War: The United States and the
Iraq Sanctions
"A vital study of the most tragic case in the recent history of
economic sanctions. Bajoghli, Nasr, Salehi-Isfahani, and Vaez
powerfully demonstrate how large the gap between the severe
material effects and the limited political efficacy of sanctions
against Iran has grown."
—Nicholas Mulder, author of The Economic Weapon: The Rise of
Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War
"An indispensable book on sanctions' impacts in Iran, How Sanctions
Work, opens a window into the fraught, little-understood, but
ubiquitous and hugely consequential practice that seems to have
supplanted diplomacy in current foreign policy and international
relations. This volume shifts our understandings of what sanctions
do—in Iran and beyond."
—Arzoo Osanloo, author of Forgiveness Work: Mercy, Law, and
Victims' Rights in Iran
"For the analysts in Washington and Tehran newly evaluating
sanctions and their effects, How Sanctions Work is a valuable
resource. By centering the targeted country in the discussion of
sanctions efficacy, Bajoghli, Nasr, Salehi-Isfahani, and Vaez
demonstrate what a case study on sanctions should look like."
—Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, Responsible Statecraft
"It is these stories of ordinary people that may humanize a
population that has been forgotten to the political rhetoric of
states. Far from an obscure political policy, which is
intentionally wrapped in complicated legal language to make the
issue seem too complicated for the average person to comprehend,
sanctions are a form of warfare that is becoming more crucial to
discuss and understand. With its far-reaching yet accessible study,
How Sanctions Work is a timely and much-needed contribution to that
discussion."
—Assal Rad, Inkstick
"Economic sanctions are often viewed as preferable to war as a way
to alter the strategic decisions of actors who violate
international norms. Yet as the authors of this provocative
critique suggest, sanctions can often be equally devastating."
—Lisa Anderson, Foreign Affairs
"In the recent How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic
Warfare, authors Vali Nasr, Narges Bajoghli, Djavad
Salehi-Isfahani, and Ali Vaez present a detailed study on the
long-term impacts of economic sanctions on Iran.... The authors
demonstrate that decades of Western sanctions, including the Trump
administration's 'maximum pressure' campaign of 2018, have neither
modified Iran's international behavior in ways intended by policy
makers nor precipitated any semblance of regime change."
—Steve H. Hanke, Reason
"We live in an age where sanctions have become an instinctive
reaction by US policymakers (and to a lesser extent also European
leaders) when feeling challenged by rival nations. How Sanctions
Work represents a smart call to rethink some taken-for-granted
assumptions about the power and effects of what historian Nicholas
Mulder would call 'the economic weapon.'"
—Marc Martorell Junyent, Manara Magazine
"[How Sanctions Work] presents a new approach to understanding
sanctions by highlighting Iranian narratives and the effect of
economic hardships on their everyday lives."—Zeinab Nikookar,
British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
"How Sanctions Work is an important study... with findings likely
applicable to other countries marked by coercive sanctions,
securitized state responses, and interstate rivalries."—Zep Kalb,
Phenomenal World
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