The finest read of 2025, to-date

“Simply lovely”, as Max Verstappen would put it (well, most of the time, anyways). Consumed this over the weekend, and was about to recommend this to friends in sanctions’ space, but feels like it is a must-read for…. well, everyone.

Borrowing from Confucius’ Analects (and Matt Pottinger’s remarks at the Chinese Embassy in Washington in 2018), I believe the following quote to depict the very spirit of the author’s remarkable narrative: “If names cannot be correct, then language is not in accordance with the truth of things; and if the language is not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried out to success”.

Calling a spade a spade, Edward Fishman spares little detail into the workings behind the art of conducting the US economic, technological and energy warfare of the 21st century. And there is so much to savour on, truly. The sheer intellect of Stuart Levey, Dan Fried, Matt Pottinger, Adam Szubin, Daleep Singh… legends.

More importantly, I wonder, if we are indeed approaching the end of the economic interdependence era, with conflicting interests and mutual grievances among the world’s nations taking the center stage?

Open the first chapter on sanctions in virtually any textbook material. You will find the spirit of“deterrence” or, perhaps, “altering one’s foreign policy” to be the reigning logic behind sanctions. In other words, there is always a way out. What if the sanctions’ openly stated goal is the one of attrition?

This book is so much more than just about “sanctions” and, hands down, the finest read of the year to-date!