Sanctions have always been an instrument that the United States and the West employ for political purposes. Yet 2013 through 2014 witnessed several cases of both effective and ineffective sanctions. Sanctions did work in changing Iran's policy on the nuclear issue, but failed to reverse Russia's annexation of Crimea. This suggests that sanctions ordered by the West do work in some scenarios, but are not panaceas in a globalized world.

No way back [By Yang Yongliang/China.org.cn]

The West is gradually losing its power of sanctions in this globalized world. Sanctions, though widely regarded as useful instruments in international politics, are actually mainly used by the West headed by the United States. Over the past decades, it was the West that only had the sufficient market power in terms of both quantity and quality to launch sanctions.

Nevertheless, things have changed greatly in the past 10 years. The newly rising economies have grown to become another market power. According to known statistics, the new economies represented by China, India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa already took up 40 percent of the total global economy by late 2013, and will have a proportion of 63 percent by 2030.

This kind of change will greatly undermine the power of sanctions of Western developed countries. The targeted countries can easily escape sanctions as they can find alternative economic opportunities with new economies.

Judging by these, the West might still command the power of sanctions, but their effectiveness will be conditioned on the consensus with new economies.

That's why Russia's Putin turned a deaf ear to the sanctions threat of the West regarding the Ukraine issue. Putin has certainly made it very clear he can find market and business alternatives within those newly rising economies.