Sanctions are neither new nor guaranteed to work – just look at Cuba

Cuba has suffered crippling US sanctions since the 1950s, with a calculated £97bn hit to its economy in that time. The regime has not changed. Photograph: Yander Zamora/EPA

Waging war by economic means is nothing new. Napoleon imposed an ineffective embargo on British exports in the early 19th century and during the first world war there were attempts by both sides to starve each other into submission.

But since 1945 sanctions have been used with increasing frequency as a means of trying to change either the policy stance or the regimes in targeted countries.