Foreign thinker
Edward Fishman
Edward FishmanPolitical Economy of International Relations and SanctionsAmerican
Life and Thought
Edward Fishman is an American foreign policy and economic sanctions expert who previously worked at the U.S. State Department on the design and implementation of sanctions. He is the author of "Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare" (2025), which shows how financial and technological tools have become weapons of foreign policy.
Edward Fishman is an American expert in foreign policy and economic security. He spent several years at the U.S. State Department, where he worked on economic sanctions, particularly those related to Russia and Iran. His responsibilities included work in the Office of Sanctions Coordination and service on the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff.
After government service, Fishman turned to research and teaching in foreign policy, energy and economic warfare, and has worked with American research and academic institutions, including Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy.
His most important work is "Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare," published in 2025. In it, Fishman argues that America's central position in the global financial, monetary and technological systems has allowed it to use the critical nodes of the world economy, the "chokepoints," as instruments of pressure. He traces the evolution of sanctions from a marginal tool into one of the main pillars of American foreign policy, and discusses their effectiveness, costs and long-term consequences, including the responses of rivals such as China and Russia.