An emergency European Union meeting was recently called to address the violence unfolding
between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists.
Economic sanctions already in place against
Russia by the EU, the US, and other countries were extended by 6 months in an effort to
stop
the violence.
So what are government sanctions and do they really work?
A sanction is a punitive measure against a person, community or a nation, levied by other
groups, especially the United States, the United Nations, or the European Union, to
enforce
compliance with international laws and standards.
These sanctions may prohibit relationships in
areas like trade, travel or finance with the penalized country.
Economists are on the fence about whether they work or not.
Several studies have looked at the
effectiveness of sanctions imposed during the 20th century and found that most of them
aren’t
considered successful.
This is because there are countless ways to undercut sanctions, and
they have unintended consequences for innocent civilians and other countries linked financially.
In the 90s, after Iraq invaded Kuwait, Iraqi trade relationships and finances were restricted
with
sweeping sanctions by the UN.
The sanctions targeted the entire economy of Iraq, which hurt
the general population before it hurt the Iraqi leaders.
This resulted in an economic downturn
and food shortages, that, according to UNICEF and many others, caused a humanitarian crisis.
Rates of childhood mortality and poverty spiked.
Saddam Hussein and other regime leaders,
however, were less affected than the poor, and were able to remain in power until the
US
invasion in 2003.
Sanctions can also be ineffective when countries choose to ignore them and continue to
trade with each other.
In 2010, the United Nations imposed more sanctions against Iran for
their continued push towards nuclear development.
Japan, Australia, South Korea and others
complied with the sanctions, but China did not.
The Atlantic Council’s Iran Task Force reported
at the time that the sanctions would be unsuccessful so long as China continued to do business
with Iran, and oil prices stayed high.
Because of the way sanctions were implemented in the past, where a country’s population
would suffer more than those in power, the UN, the US, and others are now developing
and
enforcing “smart sanctions” to target specific people or problem groups.
In early 2014, the
European Union and the United States declared ”smart sanctions” against Russia for attacking
Ukraine.
The sanctions financially restricted certain Russian companies, and “blacklisted”
people in Putin’s inner circles.
Russia’s prime minister estimates that sanctions have caused
an economic loss of “tens of billions of dollars”.
It is hoped that the sanctions will pressure Putin
into complying with international authorities over the recent conflict in Ukraine.
In principle, sanctions are a resourceful, non-violent way to get countries to work together.
In
reality, the ramifications of sanctions are always complex and hard to predict, which
makes
many analysts think sanctions don’t work at all.
China has also made imposing sanctions on North Korea very difficult in the past.
To learn more about their unique relationship, check out our video here.
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