Sanctions

Originally conceived by Woodrow Wilson as a key component of the post–World War I order within the League of Nations, the effective application of economic and other sanctions did not develop unilaterally until after World War II and developed multilaterally only after the post–Cold War era. Despite some examples of punitive sanctions taking an economic toll when imposed unilaterally, such as the United States against Cuba and Iran and the former Soviet Union against Armenia, multilateral sanctions have become the norm as they have both the greatest legitimacy and chance of success. Thus, they constitute the main focus of this entry.

Since 1990, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has imposed sanctions against 19 nations and entities, while regional organizations, most notably the European Union and the British Commonwealth, have increasingly resorted to sanctions as well. The legal authority for United Nations (UN) sanctions appears in Chapter VII, Article 41, of the UN Charter, which provides that the Security Council may call on states to impose nonmilitary measures, such as interruptions of economic and diplomatic relations, to protect international peace and security. In its first 45 years of operation, the Council imposed sanctions [Page 2352]measures in just two cases: in Southern Rhodesia in 1966 (S/RES/232) and in South Africa in 1977 (S/RES/418). The end of the Cold War removed the political roadblocks preventing collective action, while the dynamics of economic globalization convinced nations that they derived little benefit from cheating on the enforcement of sanctions. Instead, nongovernmental actors and criminal networks have tended to be the major sanctions busters.

UN multilateral economic sanctions have been imposed for a diverse set of reasons: to promote democracy and human rights, to enforce international law and resolutions of the UNSC, to prevent military aggression and armed conflict, to encourage military demobilization and postconflict reconstruction, to counter terrorism, and to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The list of the sanctions imposed by the UNSC from 1990 to 2009 reveals a substantial set of cases where sanctions are not imposed against a government but rather against nonstate actors or militia forces operating within a particular country. Examples of this trend include the cases of UN sanctions against actors in Somalia, Angola, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and CoCte d'Ivoire. In the cases of Afghanistan and Iraq, sanctions initially were imposed against governments, but after the U.S.-led overthrow of these governments, the Security Council measures were redirected against individuals and entities associated with the former regime and/or insurgent/terrorist groups. Sanctions imposed in Iraq, Somalia, Liberia, and Afghanistan have changed significantly over the years, in line with changing political conditions within the targeted regime.

Of all UNSC sanctions, only those imposed against Southern Rhodesia (1966), South Africa (1977), Iraq (1990), Yugoslavia (1991), and Haiti (1993) included comprehensive trade sanctions as part of a larger set of coercive techniques. Controversies regarding the devastating humanitarian impact of such sanctions in Iraq led to a reevaluation of general trade embargoes and prompted the adoption after 1994 of more selective and targeted measures—the so-called smart sanctions. Smart sanctions are aimed exclusively against wrongdoers rather than entire economies. These include individuals holding specific government positions, economic elites, and entities who provide significant support to—or benefit from—the sanctioned government or who have violated international law or Security Council resolutions on their own accord. Smart sanctions seek to control, capture, or restrict the movement and use of financial assets, specific products—such as luxury goods, arms, or particular commodities—that often are critically necessary for the supply and financing of armed conflict or that are being moved illegally to aid an illegal action or actor. Smart sanctions

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