NEW YORK - In the past two decades sanctions have become the go-to foreign-policy tool of Western governments, led by the United States, reported Foreign Policy on Monday, urging reflections on how these punitive measures are eroding the Western order.

By 2021, according to US Treasury Department's report, the United States had sanctions on more than 9,000 individuals, companies, and sectors of targeted country economies. In 2021, US President Joe Biden's first year in office, his administration added 765 new sanctions designations globally, including 173 related to human rights.

"US policymakers are unlikely to seriously reconsider their love affair with sanctions anytime soon. Their application is easy, cheap, and less dangerous than the threat of military action," said the report.

"Sanctions have become the all-purpose tool of statecraft, meant to convey opposition to everything from military invasions to human rights abuses to nuclear proliferation to corruption, irrespective of whether they help or undermine long-term US interests," it said

The report said that in Cuba, Iran, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Venezuela, sanctions did not produce the quick intended result of government change but reinforced alliances among targeted nations over time.

"Much of this will require a sober willingness by policymakers in both parties to consider a basic fact: Sometimes sanctions don't work. And in many cases, they are actively undermining US interests," it added.