How Economic Sanctions Actually Work
Designations, blocked property, and secondary exposure — the instruments are legal mechanics, not rhetoric, and their enforcement record is mixed.
Gabriela Montoya · August 25, 2026
Coverage of economics used as statecraft: tariffs, export controls, sanctions, investment screening and industrial subsidy programs, alongside the customs and shipping data showing where trade actually moved. Written for trade lawyers, supply chain planners, sovereign analysts and researchers of international political economy.
Coverage of economics used as statecraft: tariffs, export controls, sanctions, investment screening and industrial subsidy programs, alongside the customs and shipping data showing where trade actually moved. Written for trade lawyers, supply chain planners, sovereign analysts and researchers of international political economy.
Designations, blocked property, and secondary exposure — the instruments are legal mechanics, not rhetoric, and their enforcement record is mixed.
Gabriela Montoya · August 25, 2026

Chinese state lending to the developing world has shifted from building megaprojects to collecting and rolling over what it already lent.
Gabriela Montoya · August 6, 2026
Three thresholds in a Treasury report decide who lands on the monitoring list — and the punishment has always been negotiation, not tariffs.
Gabriela Montoya · August 2, 2026
Minerals diplomacy is the new trade architecture: narrow deals over lithium and nickel quietly define who counts as an ally in industrial policy.
Gabriela Montoya · July 22, 2026