Are US Sanctions Realigning Global Alliances? | Inside Story

Earlier this week the United States re-imposed a wide range of sanctions on Iran following the Trump administration's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement. Washington called on other powers to join it but also issued a threat, telling governments to choose: do business with US or Iran, not both.

The response has been a nearly universal "no". Some of Washington's closest allies have even promised legislation to protect their own companies against possible American reprisals.

We have been here before. In 1996 the Helms-Burton Act sought to force the rest of the world to adhere to Washington's long-standing boycott of Cuba. A 1977 law penalised US companies honouring the Arab boycott of Israel; and as recently as 2014, shortly before the nuclear deal was completed, France's largest bank, BNP Paribas, agreed to pay the US Justice Department an eight-point-nine billion dollar fine for violating US sanctions related to Iran.

Can extra-territorial sanctions really work? If they don't - as seems likely - what will that mean for America's broader role in the world?

Presenter: Hoda Abdel-Hamid | Guests: Steven Rogers - Member of the Donald J Trump for President Advisory Board; Scott Lucas - University of Birmingham (UK); Aniseh Bassiri-Tabrizi - Research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies