Now that Joe Biden has won the 2020 U.S. presidential election, pundits, policy wonks, and lawmakers are focusing on the policy shifts that a Biden administration could pursue in order to repair the damage done by President Donald Trump. One area where a significant strategic shift is necessary is in the application of terrorism sanctions.
The Trump administration’s use of sanctions across the board—such as the designations of foreign terrorist organizations, terrorist designations made under executive order authority, and the sanctioning of state sponsors of terrorism—have been based on sloganeering and politics. Slogans such as “maximum-pressure sanctions,” directed against Iran and others, have replaced other tools of statecraft, such as diplomacy.
