This photo shows 10,000 Iranian rials on top of U.S. dollars. The United States has imposed some of its most wide-ranging sanctions ever against Iran, leaving the rest of the globe scrambling to address Washington's unilateralism.
Nearly a century ago, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson laid out the case for economic sanctions as he defended the League of Nations. "A nation that is boycotted is a nation that is in sight of surrender," he argued. "Apply this economic, peaceful, silent, deadly remedy and there will be no need for force. It is a terrible remedy. It does not cost a life outside the nation boycotted, but it brings a pressure upon that nation, in my judgment, no modern nation could resist." To Wilson, it was the economic aspect of World War I that had helped defeat Germany. Moreover, it was the United States — now truly a global military and economic power — that had to take a seat at the international table so that it could use its economic heft to help prevent another crisis.
