[ajkjk]

I feel like the quotidian definition of war would be something like 'state induced violence to coerce results' and so, no, a policy that is specifically not violent and indeed is being done instead of violence would be definitely not-war. I suppose you can stretch the definition to include it. But if 'anything that kills people' is war, then like, not having universal Healthcare is war, as is understaffing emergency rooms... So that is clearly not a useful definition of war.

[kelipso]

Sanctions are akin to siege warfare. You don't have to fire a shot, the threat is enough, and you starve the population until they can't handle their kids dying and they overthrow the leadership and surrender. That's literally what the desired outcome is with sanctions. It is absolutely violence and warfare by any definition.