Given the lack of foreign policy success with “red line” threats of military force, the Obama administration has apparently broadened the definition of “use of force” to include financial threats of red ink against Russia for recent actions in Ukraine. U.S. ambassador to the U.K. Matthew Barzun wrote an editorial on May 10 for the U.K. Daily Mail newspaper where he refers to sanctions on Russia by the U.S., Britain, and EU as a “21st Century use of force,” and said that Russia is in danger of “profound economic costs.” The ambassador insists the mockery and criticism of the sanctions overlooks their “potency”:
The shirtless Putin in the tank appeared on the cover of the March 22, 2014 issue of the Economist shortly after the first sanctions were put in place in response to the Crimean crisis but before the more recent aggressive actions by Russia and pro-Russian separatists in other areas of eastern Ukraine. Nonetheless, Barzun asserts the sanctions are exacting a “steep price”:
Ambassador Barzun closes his editorial with unequivocal confidence that ultimately the sanctions, or, in his words, the “21st Century use of force,” will have the desired effect once Russia’s “current nationalistic fever” breaks:
An email to the State Department seeking further explanation of the ambassador’s words has not yet been returned.
