The Debate on Economic Sanctions

Since the last century, the era of military wars appears to have come to an end, leading the global community on a quest to find alternative ways of conflict resolution and protecting international law. One of these ways is imposing economic sanctions on other countries. These are restrictions or outright ban on trade, currency flows or investments from the other country.

But do economic sanctions achieve their objective?

History tells us that arguably, the answer to this question is that they don't. Formerly imposed sanctions on countries like Iraq, Iran, North Korea and recently, Russia, indicate that these sanctions not only turn out to be inefficient in barring the sanctioned countries from violating international peace, but also prove detrimental to other countries who are dependent on the sanctioned countries for necessities like food supplies, oil, etc. For instance, the recent imposition of economic sanctions on Russia by the US in the light of the Ukrainian war caused the oil prices in the international market to escalate, but did not compel Russia to cease the war with Ukraine.

In today's era of economic interconnectedness and geo-political complexity, it is not feasible for vulnerable countries to pull themselves out of mutually beneficial free trade, thus turning the idea of economic sanctions into a double-edged sword.

In addition to that, countries who anticipate retaliatory global response to their actions, prepare themselves for the consequences of these sanctions beforehand, and are thus able to evade them in certain ways.

However, on the other side of the coin, these sanctions do represent a swift reaction from the international community to the acts of aggression committed by countries, as in the case of Russia. Moreover, they are also seen as a peaceful alternative to military use.

But whether they act as an efficient instrument of international policy or lead to the disruption of the global economy, will depend on specific circumstances. Nevertheless, the debate continues.

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