The Effectiveness of Sanctions Essay -- Diplomacy

Throughout the past century the world has seen two world wars, several dozen border conflicts, and civil uprisings with the eventual ousting of a leader. These conflicts are usually outside of media attention so all of the lives lost, corrupt leadership, and downright dishonesty is never revealed to the international public. Physical violence has always been the direct means to solving most of these conflicts but with a cost. Both side usually lost hundreds and sometimes thousands of lives and in the end there was never a plan in place to ensure these problems never occurred again. Following the completion of the Cold War sanctions have been reestablished to ensure a government or country can be held accountable without having to use lethal measures. If there was a way to cut off import and exporting of resources to the corrupt government it would force them to comply with international laws without having to use military actions. In the past sanctions have been placed on count ries that have defied basic human needs, committed atrocious crimes against neighboring countries, or posed a threat so great to others (use of weapons of mass destruction) that the United Nations stepped in to protect those who could not protect themselves. Sanctions are put into place in the hopes of causing hardship for any country’s government and to ensure complete compliance has been established before these sanctions are lifted. Although these measures are not supposed to create a hardship to the main populous, over time they usually occur. History has shown us that over a short time period sometimes these restrictions work, but do they actually create an atmosphere in these countries to ensure these situations or crimes never happen again? ... ...? The Moral and Political Issue. By David Cartwright, October 1995: http://www.sanctionsandsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/humanitarian_sanctions_.pdf (accessed 18 March 2012). 2. Q&A: Syria sanctions, 27 November 2011, BBC Mobile News Middle East: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15753975 (accessed 18 March 2012). 3. Kimberly Ann Elliott, Institute for International Economics, "Evidence on the Costs and Benefits of Economic Sanctions," Statement before the Subcommittee on Trade of the House Ways and Means Committee, October 23, 1997. The text of her statement can be found at http://www.iie.com/sanctns.htm. 4. 14 UN Press Release SG/SM/7360, echoing Lloyd Axworthy, ‘Forward’ in David Cortright and George A. Lopez, The Sanctions Decade: Assessing UN Strategies in the 1990s (A Project of the International Peace Academy; Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2000)