Theorising Sanctions as Warfare: Insights from the US-Led Aggression on Libya

Conventional literature on sanctions tends to overfocus on measuring their political efficacy on targeted countries, accused of carrying out terrorist activities. More critically, other studies have focused on the ethical problems arising from the consequences that sanctions have on entire populations. Departing from these approaches, this article draws on Fidel Castro’s concept of the “Battle of Ideas” and argues that sanctions should be studied as a form of US-led imperialist warfare over the Global South. Taking the case of Libya, the article relies on archival sources (CIA [Central Intelligence Agency], US and Libyan government, and UN documents) as well as secondary literature, and argues that sanctions act as a form of economic warfare that supplants or complements the use of other forms of warfare, including military and non-military. In doing so, the article calls for a deeper and renewed engagement with the Third-Worldist Marxist theoretical lineage, when studying the question of financial subordination, dependency, war, and imperialism in the Arab world, and the Global South at large.