Economic sanctions are a tool of foreign policy used by major powers and coalitions in response to violent conflicts and human-rights violations. They can influence not only international trade flows and relations, but global politics as a whole.
Sanctions take a wide range of forms, including export restrictions (embargoes), capital controls that ban investment in sanctioned countries or industries and restrict access to international capital markets, and import controls that ban specific goods, services, and intellectual property from targeted nations. The goal of a sanction is to punish a nation, deny it avenues to carry out objectionable policies, and force it to change its behavior.
But because of the way they work, sanctions often have unintended consequences. They can affect the people of the sanctioned country, as well as their economic and social wellbeing. They can also become entrenched, creating domestic groups with vested interests in maintaining them. For example, the U.S. sugar industry developed an interest in keeping the embargo on Cuba even as it became clear that regime change was not imminent.
Despite these problems, it’s unlikely that sanctions will be dropped any time soon as an instrument of power in international affairs. They offer a flexible, non-military way to influence countries, regions, and individuals, as well as crack down on money laundering and other financial crimes that threaten international security. It is important for policymakers, however, to weigh the costs and benefits of this powerful coercive tool in their decision making.