“What has driven this surge in sanctions? According to Marshall Billingslea, an assistant secretary in the Treasury department, the growth reflects Donald Trump’s innovative ‘financial statecraft.’ Certainly, they seem an ideal tool for Mr Trump, who wants to put foreigners under lots of pressure but is reluctant to send troops or bombers to do the job. ‘Sanctions are perceived to be an option for when words aren’t good enough but war is too much,’ says Elizabeth Rosenberg, of the Centre for A New American Security, a think-tank in Washington, DC…”
