Study Links Western Sanctions to 38 Million Deaths Since 1970

Study Links Western Sanctions to 38 Million Deaths Since 1970
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Unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union have been linked to approximately 38 million excess deaths globally between 1970 and 2021, according to a new study published in The Lancet Global Health, as reported by Al Jazeera. The research, led by economist Francisco Rodríguez of the University of Denver, offers the first comprehensive global estimate of mortality associated with economic sanctions.

The findings suggest that in some years—particularly during the 1990s—more than one million deaths annually were attributable to sanctions. In 2021 alone, the death toll was estimated at over 800,000. The report emphasizes that children and the elderly have been disproportionately affected, with over one million child deaths linked to sanctions since 2012.

Historically, sanctions have been used by Western powers to pressure governments in the Global South that challenge Western political or economic influence. The report cites the example of US sanctions on Chile during Salvador Allende’s presidency in the 1970s, which were explicitly aimed at weakening the economy to provoke regime change. Similar impacts have been observed in Iraq during the 1990s and Venezuela in recent years.

The study argues that economic isolation often leads to widespread malnutrition, lack of access to medicine, and breakdowns in basic infrastructure. Unlike previous case-specific studies, this research aggregates decades of data to show the broader, long-term humanitarian consequences of sanctions.

The effectiveness of sanctions in achieving political change is debated, but their humanitarian toll is increasingly clear. The researchers suggest that sanctions function less as targeted political tools and more as broad forms of economic warfare, particularly when essential systems like global finance, trade, and technology remain under Western control.

To mitigate future harm, the study encourages countries in the Global South to reduce dependency on Western-controlled financial and technological systems by investing in alternative networks such as China’s CIPS payment system and BeiDou satellite network. The findings raise urgent ethical and strategic questions about the use of sanctions, suggesting that their human cost may far exceed their political utility.