Debate: Sanctions Don’t Work as a Tool of Foreign Policy

Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great minds meet. I'm producer Mia Serenti. Do sanctions work, or are they just political theatre? Today's episode is a live debate on the contentious issue of sanctions as a tool of foreign policy. Sanctions have become one of the most widely used tools in modern foreign policy.

imposed not only on states but also on individual leaders, oligarchs and corporations. From trade embargoes to asset freezers and travel bans, sanctions are deployed in response to everything, from territorial aggression to human rights abuses. But do they actually work? This October, Intelligence Squared brought together four leading thinkers to debate this very question. Arguing in favour of the motion Sanctions Don't Work as a tool of foreign policy are economist Rebecca Harding and former diplomat Ian Proud.

Opposing them are columnist Edward Lucas and Tom Keating, the founding director of the Centre for Finance and Security at the RUSI. This debate was produced in partnership with globalsanctions.com, the world's leading online resource for up-to-the-minute information on sanctions and export controls worldwide. Let's join our chair, Anne McElvoy, now from Smith Square Hall. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I suppose one thing I might just add to Hannah's kind introduction is that I'm a former Moscow correspondent.

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