The democratic recession and the fraying of the liberal international order have created more ideologically adverse revisionist states, while activists have clamored for sanctions on China for its persecution of the Uyghurs and on Hungary for its democratic backsliding, notes Daniel W. Drezner, Professor of International Politics at Tufts University’s Fletcher School. This reliance on economic sanctions would be natural if they were especially effective, but they’re not, he writes for Foreign Affairs.
But his arguments seem less robust when applied to Magnitsky-type sanctions which seem demonstrably effective in specifically targeting autocratic and kleptocractic officials.
