Sanctions and Economic Warfare

Welcome back to the SAIS Review’s The Looking Glass Podcast. I’m your host Vinayak Kalra. Sanctions are a misunderstood policy tool, rooted in a complex history, deemed by some as a lever of soft power and by others as a form of deadly warfare. In the 2020s, sanctions regimes continue to be implemented and enforced as a means of exerting influence on other nations, but often yield unexpected impacts upon sanctioned societies. To help us make sense of sanctions and the broader world of economic warfare, joining us on the podcast today is Dr. Narges Bajoghli.

Dr. Narges Bajoghli is a Media Anthropologist focusing on the Middle East at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She is a scholar, public intellectual, and award-winning author whose work explores the intersections of media, power, and resistance in global politics. Narges’ work has been featured in prominent outlets, including Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair. She is the director of the film, The Skin That Burns, on survivors of chemical warfare, and her graphic novella, Sanctioned Lives, visually captures the everyday realities of life under sanctions. Most recently, Narges along with Vali Nasr, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, and Ali Vaez, wrote the book, “How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare,” a critically acclaimed, ground-up look, at the human impact of sanctions.

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