Unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe have been used as instruments of imperial power to discipline and overthrow governments in the Global South. Sanctions aim to cut access to finance and international trade, destabilize industries, and inflame crises to provoke state collapse. Use of sanctions expanded from about 15 countries in the 1970s to roughly 30 in the 1990s–2000s and over 60 in the 2020s. Historical examples include US sanctions against Chile in 1970 that helped pave the way for a coup, Iraq in the 1990s that caused widespread humanitarian suffering, and Venezuelan sanctions linked to tens of thousands of excess deaths.
Far from a peaceful tool, these measures weaponise hunger and deprivation to enforce Western dominance. The United States and Europe have long used unilateral sanctions as a tool of imperial power, to discipline and even destroy Global South governments that seek to shake off Western domination, chart an independent path, and establish any kind of meaningful sovereignty. During the 1970s, there were, on average, about 15 countries under Western unilateral sanctions in any given year.
In many cases, these sanctions sought to strangle access to finance and international trade, destabilise industries, and inflame crises to provoke state collapse. For instance, when the popular socialist Salvador Allende was elected to power in Chile in 1970, the US government imposed brutal sanctions on the country. At a September 1970 meeting at the White House, US President Richard Nixon explained the objective was to make [Chile's] economy scream.
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