Question

Identify a country that currently has placed under economic embargoes or some type of political or economic sanctions - What kind of sanctions are they? Describe what human rights abuses are going on in that country. What roles are individual governments, the UN and nongovernmental human rights organizations playing in addressing the human rights abuses in this country? Do you think these types of countries should be placed under sanctions?

Answer 1

Summary

• Sanctions have become one of the most favored tools for governments to respond to foreign policy challenges.
• Sanctions can include travel bans, asset freezes, arms embargoes, and trade restrictions.
• The United States has more than two dozen sanctions regimes: some target specific countries such as Cuba and Iran, others are aimed at curbing activities includingterrorism and drug trafficking.

Governments and multinational bodies impose economic sanctions to try to alter the strategic decisions of state and nonstate actors that threaten their interests or violate international norms of behavior. Critics say sanctions are often poorly conceived and rarely successful in changing a target’s conduct, while supporters contend they have become more effective in recent years and remain an essential foreign policy tool. Sanctions have been the defining feature of the Western response to several geopolitical challenges, including North Korea’s nuclear program and Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. In recent years, the United States has expanded the use of sanctions, applying them and ramping them up against adversaries in Iran, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela.

What are economic sanction

Economic sanctions are defined as the withdrawal of customary trade and financial relations for foreign- and security-policy purposes. Sanctions may be comprehensive, prohibiting commercial activity with regard to an entire country, like the long-standing U.S. embargo of Cuba, or they may be targeted, blocking transactions by and with particular businesses, groups, or individuals.

Since 9/11, there has been a pronounced shift toward targeted or so-called smart sanctions, which aim to minimize the suffering of innocent civilians. Sanctions take a variety of forms, including travel bans, asset freezes, arms embargoes, capital restraints, foreign aid reductions, and trade restrictions. which are not punitive, are often excluded from sanctions discussions.)