Sanctions

Government officials use a wide variety of tools to influence the policies of other governments: diplomatic persuasion, public appeals, economic and noneconomic sanctions, and military action. These tools are sometimes applied unilaterally, with the enforcing government acting alone, and sometimes applied multilaterally with several countries. The government inflicting the sanctions is referred to as the “sender,” and the government receiving the sanctions is referred to as the “target.” Noneconomic sanctions are aimed at denying the foreign government legitimacy or prestige. They include such things as canceling summit meetings, denying VISAS, withdrawing ambassadors, and blocking the government’s bid to join international organizations. Economic sanctions are imposed by the sender to disrupt the target’s international commerce. The sender may limit such things as IMPORTS from the target and EXPORTING to the target, restrict INVESTMENT in the target country, prohibit travel to the country, or prohibit private financial transactions between the citizens of the two countries. Two notable economic sanctions are the United States’ (sender) decades-old economic sanctions against Cuba (target) and the North’s (sender) blockade of Southern (target) ports during the American Civil War. Prior to the recent war in Iraq, U.S. sanctions against that nation were initially supported by most industrialized countries but subsequently opposed or ignored as a reaction against U.S. policy. Economic sanctions usually result in active blackmarket trade with the target countries. Mack Tennyson