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RETHINK SANCTIONS. THEY’RE KILLING AS MANY PEOPLE AS WAR DOES  
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Mark Weisbrot
July 24, 2025
Center for Economic and Policy Research
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_ Sanctions are becoming the preferred weapon of the United States
and some allies — not because they are less destructive than
military action, but more likely because the toll is less visible. _

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See article on original site
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Broad economic sanctions, most of which are imposed by the U.S.
government, kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people each year
— disproportionately children. This week the Lancet Global Health
journal published an article that estimated that number at about
564,000 annually over a decade. This is comparable to the annual
deaths around the world from armed conflict.

Sanctions are becoming the preferred weapon of the United States and
some allies — not because they are less destructive than military
action, but more likely because the toll is less visible. They can
devastate food systems and hospitals and silently kill people without
the gruesome videos of body parts in tent camps and cafes bombed from
the air. They offer policymakers something that can deliver the deadly
impact of war, even against civilians, without the political cost.

The above estimate of 564,000 annual deaths from sanctions is based on
an analysis of data from 152 countries over 10 years. The study was by
economists Francisco Rodríguez, Silvio Rendón and myself.

See study on original site
[[link removed](25)00189-5/fulltext]

It’s a horrifying finding, but not surprising to economists,
statisticians and other researchers who have investigated these
impacts of economic sanctions. These are measures that target the
entire economy, or a part of it that most of the rest of the economy
depends on, such as the financial sector or a predominant export, for
example in oil-exporting economies.

The sanctions can block access to essential imports such as medicine
and food and the necessary infrastructure and spare parts to maintain
drinkable water, including electrical systems.

Damage to the economy can sometimes be even more deadly than just the
blocking of critical, life-sustaining imports. Venezuela is an example
of a country that suffered all of these impacts, and the case is far
more well-documented than for most of the now 25% of countries under
sanctions (up from 8% in the 1960s). In Venezuela, the first year of
sanctions under the first Trump administration took tens of thousands
of lives. Then things got even worse
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as the U.S. cut off
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country from the international financial system and oil exports, froze
billions of dollars of assets and imposed “secondary sanctions” on
countries that tried to do business with Venezuela.

Venezuela experienced the worst depression, without a war, in world
history. This was from 2012 to 2020, with the economy contracting by
71% — more than three times the severity of the Great Depression in
the U.S. in the 1930s. Most of this was found to be the result of the
sanctions.

Our study found that a majority of people who died as a result of
sanctions in all countries were children under 5. This atrocity is
consistent with prior research. Medical studies have found that
children in this age group become much more susceptible
[[link removed](13)60937-X/fulltext] to
death from childhood diseases such as diarrhea, pneumonia and measles
when they become malnourished.

These results are also consistent with statistical studies by the Bank
of International Settlements and other statisticians and economists
who find that recessions in developing countries
substantially increase [[link removed]] death
rates. Of course, the destruction caused by sanctions, as above, can
be many times worse than the average recession.

In 2021, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) wrote a letter
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then-President Biden, asking him to “lift all secondary and sectoral
sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the Trump Administration.” The
impact of these sanctions, he said, “is indiscriminate, and
purposely so. … Economic pain is the means by which the sanctions
are supposed to work. But it is not Venezuelan officials who suffer
the costs. It is the Venezuelan people.”

This is why U.S. sanctions are illegal under treaties the United
States has signed, including the Charter of the Organization of
American States
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They are also prohibited during wartime
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the Geneva
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as collective punishment of civilians. U.N. experts have argued
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quite persuasively, that something that is a war crime when people are
bombing and shooting each other should also be a crime when there is
no such war.

These sanctions also violate U.S. law. In ordering the sanctions, the
president is required by U.S. law to declare that the sanctioned
country is causing a “national emergency
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and poses “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national
security. But this has almost never been true.

Given the deterioration of the rule of law in the United States, and
the lack of regard for human rights in America’s foreign policy —
and increasingly at home — it’s easy to be pessimistic about the
prospects for ending this economic violence. But it will end.

We have seen victories against much more formidable adversaries and
entrenched policies, including wars — most recently against the U.S.
participation in the war in Yemen. Organized opposition got Congress
to pass
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related war powers resolution in 2019. This forced an end
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at least some of the U.S. military support and blockade that had put
millions of people at emergency
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of hunger, thereby saving thousands of lives.

The CIA’s formal post-9/11 torture program, which included
waterboarding, was ended by executive order
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2009, after public exposure and considerable opposition.

The biggest advantage of sanctions, for the policymakers who use them,
is the invisibility of their toll. But that is also their Achilles’
heel. When the economic violence of broad sanctions becomes widely
known, they will be indefensible and no longer politically
sustainable.

* Sanctions
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* hunger
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* disease
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* death
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