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| Are economic sanctions effective without the threat of military intervention? |
 PRINTABLE VERSION |
Another key factor was the sanction put in place in August of 1985. It restricted economic growth by forcing the regime to create current account surpluses and making sure capital outflows continued. The sanction led to South Africa being excluded from the world stock of savings because the financiers and bankers saw South Africa as a risk. The socio-economic state of affairs made them unsure of the security of investments made there, and therefore they stopped recommending it as a place to invest. All of these factors and many more, which I have not had time to mention, led to economic sanctions working very effectively as a tool against apartheid. In the case of South Africa the conditions were right for sanctions to work, there was enough foreign input into the country that sanctions forced the government change the regime. In April of 1994 the first South African democratic election was held with people queuing for kilometers to vote, people from every race. Nelson Mandela was elected the first black President of South Africa. It had taken a long time for the policies and laws behind apartheid to be abolished but they were finally gone, with the help of economic sanctions.
The second case, economic sanctions in Iraq, shows that sanctions can also be highly ineffective. On the 2nd of August 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait. Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz had accused Kuwait of stealing Iraqi oil in July 1990 and claimed that Kuwait had built military posts on Iraqi land. United States President George Bush froze Iraqi assets and banned all trade relations. On the 4th of August the European Community called for the immediate withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait and imposed broad sanctions. On the 5th of August Japan and China also imposed sanctions. This led to the first gulf war. After the war, sanctions continued to be imposed by the United Nations Security Council in the attempt to remove Saddam Hussein and his dictatorship. These sanctions are still in place, although the UN Security Council is considering removing them now that Hussein and his dictatorship have apparently disappeared.
These sanctions were a true example of effecting the unintended population and not the intended state. They targeted the most unprotected and fragile members of the Iraqi society including the poor, sick, elderly, newborn and the young. The UN sanctions committee denied Iraq pencils, spare parts, computer equipment and air-conditioned trucks. The trucks were necessary to stop any food that goes to the country from going off while being transported around therefore meaning that much of the food that arrived there went off before it could be fed to anyone. It has been said that ‘the UN Security Council bears considerable, if not primary moral responsibility for the suffering and death of [over one million] Iraqi civilians. This is unacceptable! The sanctions were not put in place to punish the civilians and have not to any stretch of the imagination done enough harm to the Hussein dictatorship. Without military intervention, economic sanctions have not worked at all effectively as a method for punishing the Iraqi government.
These two cases are exact opposites; South Africa proved that economic sanctions can be highly effective while Iraq showed that economic sanctions can destroy a population, without affecting a state. The reason I have used these two cases is that they show how economic sanctions should be used. In South Africa there were significant amounts of foreign influence, investment and companies. In Iraq there was little of any of these. The amount of foreign influence, investment and companies is what I think it comes down to. In a country with little of this, economic sanctions will ruin the country, while in a country where there is much it will help to change the state. Therefore I believe economic sanctions have the ability to be reasonably effective without military intervention, but only in certain situations. If there is little foreign influence in a country, then economic sanctions will destroy the local population and will have little effect without military intervention.
According to the authors of ‘Economic Sanctions Reconsidered’ sanctions have been successful in thirty-four percent of the cases overall. I am not sure that thirty-four percent is high enough to say that economic sanctions are very effective overall, and so I believe that overall economic sanctions are relatively ineffective without military intervention. Occasionally cases like the one in South Africa may appear and sanctions may work, but overall I agree with Richard Haas, trade sanctions more often than not punish the unintended population rather that the government leaders. Economic sanctions are relatively ineffective without military intervention.
For all footnotes contact me: fk.mckenzie@clear.net.nz
Please note that this article was written March 2003 and therefore some examples have subsequently changed.
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Comments
cuba a example? FReddy W. | Nov 12th, 2004
ES viable las sanciones, sin embargo, no deben ser exageradad como sucede en cuba, en donde incluso los medicamentos de origen made in USa, no son permitidos, deberia de haber una reglamentacion internacional sobre el tema. y la onu, y demas instituciones podrian ayudar en el tema.
freddy w,
True its debatable Antony Felix O. O. Simbowo | May 20th, 2005
If the reason for the sanction is sinister it will definately fail. However, if its for the benefit of the majority, then it will succeed. Some one once said that no force can stop the power of an idea whose time has come.
I'm a ah hyeon | Feb 16th, 2008
student(South Korean) researching on economic sanctions and its effectiveness... I will use your essay as a research material. Please contact me if you don't wish for me to do so. E-mail : ctchyun@hotmail.com
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