It's been 2 years since the fierce economical war between America and Russia. This front of the global clash of powers is becoming increasingly important, due to the fact that on the horizon, conflict with China. Let us look at the operational staff of this conflict. It's a tiny agency with a large mission.
I wrote about sanctions and their actions earlier (Jęczniak: economical War with Russia circular another | Think Poland (myślpolska.info)Now let's take care of the institution that's moving this economical war with the full world. For the last 2 years it has been aggressive – the United States and their allies truly tensed the muscles. The quantities of persons and undertakings sanctioned have reached evidence levels.
And it's all managed from a tiny office at the Treasury Department on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. This is OFAC, full name: Office of abroad Assets Control. specified a small, unknown agency with an highly politically crucial mission, where only 200 people work and has over $30 million in yearly budget. Not much. And he holds the full planet by his face, destroying business, taking possessions from competitors and enemies of America. Through its basic tool, or sanctions.
OFAC manages US economical sanctions, justifying that their mark is drug smugglers and terrorists. But in authoritative documents, the government says plainly: OFAC pursues US abroad policy objectives, acts in the name of national safety and carries out economical tasks. The unique authority of the Office is to cut off all economical operator from the dollar, and this is the dominant currency of financial transactions and global trade.
OFAC uses different forms of sanctions. He treats America's fewer enemies as hard as Iran, Cuba, North Korea or Syria. They are the ones covered by “all sanctions” or truly – the embargo. They have late been joined by a heavyweight fighter – Russia, although only through Crimea. The office besides has a number of another countries on its radar, specified as Belarus, Burma, Libya and Venezuela. On the horizon there is simply a player of super heavyweight – China, which is increasingly the subject of economical and financial restrictions, rigors, repression, bans, repression measures, obstructions. A full trade embargo means that it is not allowed to trade with this entity, freezing assets means that the owner of the money or property loses control of them, and the seizure of the assets makes the victim of its property completely deprived. Travel bans to the United States are besides applied.
Letters are the primary tool for fighting the remainder of the world. The main 1 is called the Specially Designed Nationals and Blocked Persons. "Designated" means marked, selected... by the American government of course. It can be called “the black list”, but even better – “the list of the plagued”. any 10,000 people, businesses and institutions were there to conflict with Russia. For Joe Biden's presidency, more than 5500 consecutive positions were placed on these lists. All those inscribed should avoid being pariahs of the modern business world. With them, no business must be done to persons or businesses, anything in common with the US.
This is simply a very inexpensive institution compared to the expenditure needed for military war. The full budget of the TFI is just $244 million. However, it grows reasonably quickly, in 2018 it was 122 million USD. The OFAC budget is just a tiny part of that money.
The economical impact of sanctions is simply a delicate and complex operation. It includes many government institutions (including the White House, State Department (MSZ), Justice, Treasury, intelligence services...). And OFAC is the ‘central nerve center’ of these operations. His employees are being thrown from 1 front of economical war to another – from North Korea to the Iranian episode, and hence to the vast Russian front. This requires large competence, experience and availability.
All employees must have peculiar services clearances, so it's hard for an accidental individual to get there. As war is war, economics besides requires discipline and trust. Besides, no of these over 200 people are organization appointees. It's besides serious for any incompetent cousins of politicians to hang around.
Andrzej Szczęsniak
Think Poland, No. 11-12 (10-17.03.2024)
