DID Press: Economic sanctions in today’s world represent a modernized form of historical city sieges. In pre-modern times, before the invention of fighter jets and weapons of mass destruction, wars often targeted cities directly. The defeated population would retreat behind city walls, while besieging forces would encircle the city, using starvation and deprivation to compel surrender. Eventually, residents, weakened by hunger and suffering, would open the gates, after which looting, destruction, and mass killings would follow.
Today, warfare has evolved. Instead of military sieges, global powers increasingly rely on economic sanctions. These measures continue until the targeted society collapses. In effect, economic sanctions function as a form of mass destruction comparable to nuclear weapons. When imposed on any country, they constitute a crime against humanity, and their supporters are complicit in this harm.
Regardless of a nation’s political system or the legitimacy of its leaders, no country has the right to collectively punish millions of people. Sanctions disproportionately affect the poorest segments of society, leading to systematic oppression, social breakdown, rising crime, and family disintegration.
In many ways, economic sanctions are more brutal than conventional warfare. In military conflict, enemies and their weapons are visible, often uniting people against a clear aggressor. Under sanctions, however, the “enemy” is invisible, and economic collapse breeds social fragmentation and internal conflict, eroding the very fabric of society.