Conflict+Management+in+Global+Politics+-+Economic+Sanctions

= = Evaluating the Effectiveness of Economic Sanctions as a Method for Managing Global Conflicts Julia - Brett F. - Negin

Background/Historic Examples
Economic sanctions are penalties that a country can enforce on another country in an effort to resolve a dispute. It is a way of causing economic loss to that country so that it will change its ways. There are many ways for a country to place sanctions on another country or nation including tariffs, quota's, or in the most effective manner; embargoes.

Sanctions can be initiated limiting the target country's exports around the world therefore deriving the country from economic growth or success. Sanctions can also block the target country's imports, usually resources such as oil, natural gas, wheat, etc. These are effective because the country then has to find another source of these resources which can be very difficult.

Many sanctions against target countries can be issued by many countries in the international community, however they are usually enacted by the UN and usually only affect the trade of arms. Embargoes issued by the UN do not have a huge impact whereas a dominant country issuing embargoes can alter a governments plan greatly. For example the US has had sanctions against Cuba since 1962 because of its misuse of american goods and services. Historically this embargo has been succesful, Cuba became very volatile and therefore had to begin expansive trade with the Soviet Union. However, when a single country issues an embargo, the target country can very easily find a new trade partner. This would cause the embargo to be virtually ineffective and could in fact hurt the issuing country. For example, Australia cut of shipments of Uranium to France in 1984 because of France's irresponsible testing in the South Pacific. However, France was able to replace the source of uranium and all the uranium contracted to France wasnt sold. The Australian government then paid the mining companies more than 26 million to cover the lost revenue.

Sources: 1. Investopedia, http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/10/economic-sanctions, Retrieved Sunday October 16th 2011 2. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/67554.stm, Retrieved Sunday October 16th 2011 3. Elliott, Kimberly Ann, Hufbauer Gary Clyde, Oegg, Barbara : http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Sanctions.html Retrieved Sunday October 16th 2011 4. Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, http://www.international.gc.ca/sanctions/, Retrieved Sunday October 16th 2011 5. Doxey, Margaret P. //International Sanctions in Contemporary Perspective.// New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987. Retrieved Saturday October 15th 2011

**Current Examples**

A more recent example of economic sanctions in action was the trade tariffs placed on the US by Brazil in protest of anti-competitive subsidies to cotton growers in the US. The World Trade Organization has approved the following sanctions on import duty: raw cotton will rise to 100% from the previous 6%, cars will rise to 50% from 35% and sugar-free chewing gum will rise to 36% from the original half of 18%. to once again clarify, the sanction was in protest of the US congress authorizing subsides to their annual agricultural bill, which unfairly help US cotton producers undersell foreign competitors and as a result, also depressed global markets. The US is currently the world's second largest cotton producer by paying $3 billion to American farmers each year. To give some context, China is the world's largest cotton producer and Brazil is the fifth largest. Using these statistics (and many more) in March 2010, Brazil has managed to fight for its case and get its tariffs WTO approval.(1)

Closer to home, on February 26 of 2011, the Canadian government put a sanction on Libya to express its disapproval with the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and their use of violence and force against civilians. The sanction included:
 * Prohibitions on the sale of military arms or exportation of any form of weapon related material
 * Prohibitions of transport of arms and related materials by Canadian aircraft and pilots
 * Prohibitions on any form of technical, financial or other assistance for military purposes
 * Prohibitions on import of any arms related material from Libya
 * Prohibitions on negotiations with designated people

From the sanction we can see that an official sanction is meticulously clear, and there was a large portion on the dispute explanation website which went on to elaborate in extensive detail why this particular sanction was indeed justified.

However, six months later, the Gaddafi regime has fallen and now Canada is working alongside the international community to help Libya get back on its feet, move through a transitional government, settle down the rebel forces and disentangle the whole riled up nation in general. Due to this, on September first of this year, Canada has retracted its unilateral sanction against Libya in order to help stabilization and further development and humanitarian aid measures. From this, we can see that economic sanctions can be placed and retracted with relative ease and is usually not meant to be a permanent process. We see that economic sanctions are a flexible, fluid tool with is often employed by governments to voice their disapproval towards a certain state's actions and once reality changes, the relevancy of economic sanctions are no longer existent. (2)

Sources:
 * 1) Stanglin, Douglas. "Brazil slaps trade sanctions on U.S. to retaliate for subsidies to cotton farmers.." //ONE DEADLINE// 09.03.2010. n. pag. //USA Today//. Web. 19 Oct 2011. <[]>.
 * 2) Canada. Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. //Libya//. Web. <[]>.

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Economic Sanctions
Effective:
 * 1) In terms of conflict prevention, economic sanctions are a great way to deal with minor issues, or low politics. Minor not as in insignificant, but as in extrinsic. For example, an economic sanction on Israel against their treatment of Palestinians and border aggression will most likely not have an impact because the Israelis think of guarding their sovereignty as crucial and can in a way be stated to "live for" Jerusalem. However, an oil economic sanction on Canada for having the largest ecological footprint in the world might prove to be, although very unlikely because the dependency on oil is far too large, extremely effective because Canada probably won't go to war over their environment. Economic sanctions provide another channel for providing pressures for change, and is often the most appropriate response to certain unfavourable actions.
 * 2) Economic sanctions are effective in behavioural changes rather than ideology changes, unless the original intent was to force a regime change. The Israel example above would be considered an ideology change, where their fundamental principles and beliefs were to be in danger is to comply with the actions desired from the imposing country. Yet, the Canadian example is one of behavioural change, where a few new environmental policies would most likely be satisfactory to lift the sanction. Here, Canada only has to change its actions, which ties to much less to what it fundamentally stands for than Israel.
 * 3) Economic sanctions tend to be a favourite policy tool amongst politicians because they are relatively easy to implement, delineate governmental stance on certain issues and can impress the domestic audience. As the real example in Canada's sanction on Libya, it showed that it did not take an exceedingly large amount of work to institute it, nor to lift it. The example with Brazil showed the enrage that the imposing country is feeling towards the target country. And as trade sanctions limits imports from target country, it is on the side, using protectionism for domestic industries, which looks good on the people. Not to mention, sanctions are actually the government doing something, and often times just this is enough to satisfy.

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