This report from the Robert M. Gates Global Policy Center (GGPC) argues that one area where we can begin to exercise much needed discipline over U.S. economic statecraft is through our sanctions policies. Sanctions will be vital in the competitions to come, but we have been employing them in a strategy-free fashion. How can the U.S. make sanctions more effective and further integrate them with our other economic tools and instruments of national power?

This GGPC recommendations report draws off discussions at the third Gates Forum, which addressed sanctions and economic statecraft in an age of Big Power rivalry. Participants in the forum included members of Congress and senior officials from both parties, representatives from private enterprise and philanthropy, as well as leading academic scholars. The forum’s discussions—which covered everything from the role of sanctions and tariffs to export controls and trade policy— were supported by a research volume curated by William & Mary’s Global Research Institute.