Effectiveness of Economic Sanctions - Essay Example

Economic Sanctions Economic sanctions, since the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, have become the weapon of choice by the major world powers, especially the United States, to impose their will on less developed nations as well as retaining their global hegemony. While these sanctions seem to be the best option in dealing with situations without any bloodshed, their effectiveness, especially in the modern world is highly questionable and open to debate. It is my opinion that sanctions do not work because they rarely affect those who are its actual targets – members of a regime - and instead those who feel the burden of these sanctions are the target country’s population, which has little or no involvement in the actions of their leaders. Those who advocate for economic sanctions argue that they are low cost remedies against the unacceptable behavior of foreign governments or individuals. A case made for the imposition of economic sanctions include: as a tool signaling the disapproval of a targeted country’s policies stopping short of military action; it can be used as a powerful tool in trade negotiations; and it can be used to block the export of technology to dangerous countries (Askari et al. 65). The opinion that sanctions are low cost is very doubtful because it does not take into account that their imposition affects not only the target country’s leadership and population but also the economy of the country imposing the sanctions especially if it is a big trade partner. An example of this would be a hypothetical imposition of sanctions against Saudi Arabia. The oil prices would go up globally and in doing so, the cost of living would go up, making the imposition of such sanctions very costly indeed. There are a number of conditions necessary for the success of purposeful economic sanctions, such as the country, imposing the sanctions must have sufficient economic advantage on the target country. This economic advantage must inflict or have the potential to inflict sufficient economic hardship on the target to force the leadership to change their objectionable policies or force a change to a more friendly leadership (Askari et al. 191). Sanctions do not often succeed in changing the behavior of foreign countries especially those which are economically self sufficient like Indonesia. The sanctions put in place may perhaps not be sufficient for the task or the goals they are intended for or may not be clear enough for them to be effective. Another reason for failure is that sanctions may unify the target country in support of its government and in the search for commercial alternatives for the goods, whose access has been restricted (Hufbauer pp.7-8). In the process, the country may strive to produce the products, which it used to import and if it does not have the sufficient resources to do so, may find an alternative source for these products. Sanctions provide a common external enemy to unite the population of the target and to increase the popularity of the current leadership as seen in Mussolini’s Italy when sanctions were imposed by the League of Nations after the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. While this can be viewed as a psychological phenomenon, the rally effect has an economic basis as well. Export sanctions tend to create groups of economic gainers who have a material incentive to see that sanctions are maintained and who may influence the target country’s government to maintain the policies that prompted the sanctions (Selden 4). The human ability to adapt to new conditions or environments lessens the bite of the sanctions. The longer the sanctions last, the more the target becomes adjusted to them and in the process; their effectiveness is diminished almost to insignificance. The failure of these sanctions to effect any change eventually encourages the government of the target country to continue with the policies, which brought the sanctions upon it in the first place. Economic pressure may also fail because sanctions may prompt powerful and wealthy allies of the target country to support it by offsetting whatever deprivation results from the sanctions themselves. An example of this is China’s continued support for North Korea despite the fact that sanctions have been imposed on the so-called rogue state. The alienation of allies abroad and the business interests within the imposing country can cause failure of sanctions. This is simply because as a big trade partner of the target, there are businesses, which have interests in the target country, and the imposition of sanctions may lead to immense losses as well as loss of revenue to the government of the imposing country. This may in turn lead to resentment from the business community and in the process, their government may have to back down from imposing the sanctions if it wishes to get re-elected. Furthermore even though it is determined that an economic sanction will be successful on a particular target country, the sender must also be able to assess the economic cost to it. The current reluctance of Russia and China to impose and to support the imposition of sanctions against the government of Syria despite the ongoing violence in that country may be partly inspired by the above-mentioned economic considerations since these two are among the biggest trading partners of Syria and the fall of the current regime may jeopardize this relationship. Most of the countries that impose sanctions are for the most part large nations whose interests depend on pursuing an active foreign policy in order to retain their positions as world leaders. For example, the United States used sanctions twenty five times in the 1980s alone to influence the actions of other states. In the post-Cold War era sanctions have virtually the default option in American foreign policy and these are imposed to correct everything from human rights violations to nuclear proliferation. While they are a popular tool of foreign policy, little is known as to how and why sanctions are effective or ineffective. Very good examples of these are Iran and North Korea, which have recently had sanctions imposed on them to discourage them from continuing their nuclear programs. Despite all the sanctions that have been imposed on them, these two countries have defiantly advanced their programs and carried out tests as seen in the case of North Korea. The domestic political and economic goals of the imposing country tend to be the dominant motivation for the imposition of sanctions on target states. These often succeed in galvanizing patriotic support for the imposing government by either inflaming patriotic fervor or quenching the public thirst for retribution. These often happen when there is a threat to the national security of the imposing country from the target country or when the target country is violating human rights and the public in the imposer’s country demands that its government takes action against the culprit regime. Furthermore, the reluctance to use military force is a motivation for the use of sanctions due to the high financial costs and casualties involved in wars. Since wars in general are very unpopular with the public, the government gets to satisfy their need for a non-violent solution to the matter while the government itself gets to send a strong message to protect its interests. Sanctions provide a visible and less expensive alternative to either doing nothing or limiting the imposer’s reaction to rhetoric (Haass 2). In conclusion, the imposition of sanctions can generally be said not to be as effective as one would expect. In fact most of the time, it tends to have the opposite effect from the desired one. The countries against which sanctions have been imposed over the last ten years have not yet given up on their policies so far and have in fact remained defiant. A very good example of this is Zimbabwe whose government has remained steadfast in its refusal bow to Western inspired sanctions. The Zimbabwean government also enjoys a large scale of support of China, which has been its ally since the black majority government came to power in 1980. Sanctions bring about the suffering of the target country population, other than to the responsible members of its government. They lead to the collapse of once robust economies just because a few individuals are being targeted. In essence, sanctions lead to the suffering of many in the place of the few and better ways such as dialogue as equals should be found to deal with the situation. Works Cited Askari, G. Hossein, Forrer J, Teegen Hildy, & Yang Jiawen. Economic Sanctions: Examining their Philosophy and Efficacy. Westport, United States: Greenwood Publishing Group. 2003.Print. - http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=R6GqyV-Nc1AC&printsec=frontcover&dq=.+Economic+Sanctions:+Examining+their+Philosophy+and+Efficacy.&hl=sw&sa=X&ei=r2cNUM2oEI6zhAfXs4yACg&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=.%20Economic%20Sanctions%3A%20Examining%20their%20Philosophy%20and%20Efficacy.&f=false Haass, Richard (ed.), Economic Sanctions and American Diplomacy. New York, United States: Council on Foreign Relations. 1998.Print. - http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=urvIo1FQWZwC&pg=PA8&dq=Haass,+Richard+(ed.),+Economic+Sanctions+and+American+Diplomacy.&hl=sw&sa=X&ei=qmgNUPHIDJCxhAeZ6annCQ&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Haass%2C%20Richard%20(ed.)%2C%20Economic%20Sanctions%20and%20American%20Diplomacy.&f=false Hufbauer, Gary, Clyde. Economic Sanctions Reconsidered. Washington D.C. United States: Peterson Institute for International Relations. 2008.Print. - http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=g-uzlJDD7DwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Hufbauer,+Gary,+Clyde.+Economic+Sanctions+Reconsidered.&hl=sw&sa=X&ei=oWkNUPr4AsuIhQf0lcTwCQ&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Hufbauer%2C%20Gary%2C%20Clyde.%20Economic%20Sanctions%20Reconsidered.&f=false Selden, Zachary, A. Economic Sanctions as Instruments of American Foreign Policy. Westport, United States: Greenwood Publishing Group. 1999.Print. - http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=mn7Wxx1SigcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Selden,+Zachary,+A.+Economic+Sanctions+as+Instruments+of+American+Foreign+Policy.&hl=sw&sa=X&ei=4mkNUJmKGsaGhQe_p7mICg&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Selden%2C%20Zachary%2C%20A.%20Economic%20Sanctions%20as%20Instruments%20of%20American%20Foreign%20Policy.&f=false Read More