The Scourge of War: The Life of William Tecumseh Sherman

Another interesting angle that Backfire explores is the ‘dark side’ of sanctions – that is, how targeted countries and affected companies manage to circumvent or bypass sanctions regimes. Knowing that sanctions ‘have a massive impact on the dealings – and strategy – of foreign firms’ (p. 75), the book offers many telling examples of how countries such as Russia, China or Iran have managed to bust US sanctions by using alternative trade and currency mechanisms. This situation could ultimately lead to the dreaded ‘decoupling’ of the US and Chinese economies (p. 175). Demarais concludes the book with a warning: through adaptation, international transactions might become ‘immune’ to US sanctions (p. 126). Indeed, as sanctions use established financial channels controlled or overseen by US regulators, targeted countries are slowly learning how to shield themselves. For a country such as China, the ultimate goal would be to create an alternative financial world order insulated from the Bretton Woods-inherited institutions. The shift towards a less US-centric financial order will happen at an ‘incremental pace’ (p. 154) but the process has already started within several states and central banks. A good example is Beijing’s willingness to challenge the ‘supremacy of the dollar’ by investing in a statebacked cryptocurrency, the digital renminbi (p. 143). In its final sections, Backfire shows that geo-economics will therefore be increasingly linked to geo-technological competition, especially between tech companies. In the field of sanctions, more research is needed to understand the future of such challenges. Post-financial, ‘geo-tech’ sanctions might be an avenue – namely targeting the silicon-based economy and semiconductors (p. 164). And with the first US-led ‘crypto-sanctions’ on the blockchain perhaps just around the corner, clearly those designing sanctions are keen to adapt their approach. Backfire offers important insights on what the future of sanctions might look like and therefore represents a welcome contribution to this field of research. n