Imposing sanctions on a country is a way of waging war against that country. It’s not just that economic embargoes can cripple nations’ economies nor that they tend to disproportionately affect innocent civilians. No, the reality is even more stark than that: sanctions kill. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at some of the examples of how sanctions have been used throughout history as a tool of warfare.

In 1946, Eric Arthur Blair (better known by his pen name, George Orwell) penned an essay entitled "Why I Write." Although just 43 years old when the essay was published in the pages of the short-lived literary journal Gangrel, Orwell—who had already gained...