Chokepoints by Edward Fishman delivers a sharp and sober analysis of economic coercion as a strategic tool of U.S. foreign policy. Drawing on a wealth of sources and his experience in the U.S. State Department, Fishman chronicles the evolution of sanctions against Iran, Huawei, and Russia. Rather than presenting a dramatized geopolitical thriller, he offers a disciplined, evidence-driven look into how financial power is wielded through chokepoints—bottlenecks in the global economy that the U.S. and its allies can exploit.
The book excels in unpacking the logic behind sanctions, their incremental design, and their mixed effectiveness. Particularly compelling is the contrast between the relative success of sanctions against Iran—a smaller, less globally integrated economy—and the limits of similar measures against Russia. Fishman’s framing of contrafactuals (“economic warfare does not work all the time, but the alternative has the same problem”) shows a rare humility in policy discourse.
For readers with a background in sanctions or foreign policy, the book may not radically shift existing moral or analytical positions, but it sharpens them. It reinforced my own belief in the need for deep planning and strategic use of sanctions, and it gave me new arguments to defend these tools, especially in debates about their ethical grounding and real-world effectiveness.
Fishman writes from an American vantage point, yet manages to integrate European perspectives credibly—something often lacking in U.S. strategic literature. He also highlights the growing fractures in the transatlantic alliance, the rise of BRICS as a countermeasure against sanctions and nearly nothing else, and the geopolitical need for renewed coordination among liberal democracies.
In light of current challenges—from isolating Russia more effectively to addressing the internal weaknesses of the EU vis-à-vis Hungary and Slovakia—Chokepoints is a timely, thoughtful, and practically useful contribution.