THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD OF DOLLAR SANCTIONS

Abstract

Dollar sanctions are a double-edged sword: they risk undermining U.S. interests even as they punish U.S. foes. The United States' increasing reliance on sanctions as a foreign policy tool over the past two decades has sharpened the edge that undermines U.S. interests and dulled the edge that punishes foes. This Article provides a comprehensive account of the downsides of the overreliance on sanctions, with a particular focus on the risk it poses to the dollar's status as the dominant international currency. It situates this risk within the broader context of the current administration's zero-sum approach to foreign policy and suggests reasons to hope that the global dollar system may survive the current era even if other cooperative networks collapse. Finally, it proposes structural reforms to slow the sanctions machine without breaking it by adding points of procedural friction within the executive arm and across the branches of government.