Do sanctions work? | World Defense

Do sanctions work?

vinceasneed

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The thing I hate about sanctions is that often times they hurt the average person on the street. This is supposed to have the intended effect of causing the people to rise up in protest against their leader. However, there are 2 problems with it. One is that it keeps food from peoples mouths sometimes. Also, it sometimes has the opposite effect and makes the people support their leader. So were the sanctions in Iran an exception? Did they work?
 

gmckee1985

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They can work it really just depends on the situation. Youre correct that they do tend to harm the average person in the country being targeted. Thats obviously a huge negative. But you cant scrap sanctions completely because they can be effective.
 

orangesunset

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The sanctions are working really well against Cuba. Sanctions will hurt the country economically, if the purpose is to overthrow the leader, usually they have the opposite effect. The leader of the country in question blames every problem on the sanctions, and usually it just strengthens his power.

Sanctions are symbolic, it is like a child saying I don't like you, I am taking my ball home.
 

DancingLady

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I think they can work but if the people in that nation do not have access to information about what is going on, they will easily believe that the problems are caused by all sorts of other things their leaders and media blames. If the people are already unhappy about their leaders, it may motivate them to push for change.
 

jeremy2

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The thing I hate about sanctions is that often times they hurt the average person on the street. This is supposed to have the intended effect of causing the people to rise up in protest against their leader. However, there are 2 problems with it. One is that it keeps food from peoples mouths sometimes. Also, it sometimes has the opposite effect and makes the people support their leader. So were the sanctions in Iran an exception? Did they work?
With regard to Iran,am not sure they had the intended effect but closer home,Russia is surely feeling the pinch.Already the economy is on the verge of collapse and the export market is virtually on its knees.Sooner or later,we might expect a regime change if the status quo is maintained.
 

globulon

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It must be taken on a case-by-case basis whether sanctions work or not. It is unfortunate that the average person can be hurt by sanctions, but often they are not the target. For example, sanctions can make it difficult for businessmen and merchants to conduct business internationally. Thus sanctions may pressure these wealthy and more influential persons to lobby for a change in policies or government. It is just one example as there are many indirect ways one can influence another country.
 

Gabriel

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Sanctions don't work to achieve the desired effect. It's a power thing, where another state can only threaten trade sanctions as a punishment when another state doesn't do what they want. Look at the old models, the Boston Tea Party where they used sanctions against the people, it didn't help relations then and doesn't now.

The only people affected are small businesses and the citizens who have to pay inflated prices and then companies go under and people lose jobs. They are not the target, but in repressed regimes, they don't really care about the citizens, only power.
 

Muthoni

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The average man is the one who suffers every time. A leader may involve them in a fight with another leader. The average man is left fighting with his neighbor while the two leaders who started the war share a cup of tea. It is necessary to be wise so that we are not misused for someone’s purpose.
 

003

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I think that instead that sanctions produce a good feedback, it provokes more the country to do what more or even worse than what caused sanctions to be given to them. But the thing is we can't just leave things as they are without giving them appropriate reactions. We can't just overlook on the crimes committed. Crimes have to be punished. But some countries are so stubborn that they'd even have their citizens suffer than budge.
 

Onionman

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I'm not sure whether it works everywhere but it certainly had a big impact on South Africa and the end of Apartheid. The isolation they felt economically and culturally had a huge effect on the shift in the political climate. It might not be the same everywhere but there are times that it has had value.
 
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