Economic sanctions attempt to make a target country follow certain rules by making it costlier to engage in global trade, access financial resources, and obtain goods. They are one of the most powerful tools in the toolkit of international diplomacy, and a nuanced understanding of their definition, mechanisms, legislation, and impact is crucial to policymakers, scholars, and anyone navigating the complex web of global politics.
In the past, broad-based sanctions (those affecting a nation as a whole) have tended to backfire and help target regimes shore up support at home by framing foreign pressure as an assault on the nation. For example, in South Africa, sanctions exacerbated the economic and government crisis faced by the apartheid regime and helped fuel the protest movement that eventually brought down the government.
But even targeted sanctions can have negative socioeconomic impacts for the broader population, harming health outcomes and increasing the cost of living. These effects can even demoralize citizens and undermine the effectiveness of policy change.
Sanctions that rely on blocking access to a critical resource may also weaken the sanctioning country’s monopoly, as competitors search for alternatives. A recent example was the United States’ leading role in freezing more than $330 billion in Russian central bank assets, a move that could lead investors to withdraw capital from Russia and undermine confidence in placing assets in a Western central bank in the future.
The effects of limited and moderate sanctions vary by intensity, but on average they cause moderate damage to a nation’s economy. For more serious damage, a combination of multiple measures must be used and the sanctions must last for a long time.
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