Sanctions Economic Statecraft

Economic sanctions have become an increasingly popular instrument of foreign policy. They have been used with increasing incidence to discourage or punish a variety of objectionable practices—such as terrorism, ethnic cleansing, nuclear proliferation, human rights abuses—by states and multilateral organizations such as the UN and NATO. Yet much controversy characterizes the debate about both the motivations behind the initiation of economic sanctions and the consequences following from their imposition. This collection of essays seeks to illuminate this debate through a combination of different methodologies and cases.

Economic sanctions have become an increasingly popular instrument of foreign policy. They have been used with increasing incidence to discourage or punish a variety of objectionable practices--such as terrorism, ethnic cleansing, nuclear proliferation, human rights abuses--by states and multilateral organizations such as the UN and NATO. Yet much controversy characterizes the debate about both the motivations behind the initiation of economic sanctions and the consequences following from their imposition. This collection of essays seeks to illuminate this debate through a combination of different methodologies and cases.

Booknews

To help clarify the often used but not very well understood policy of economic sanctions, political scientists and economists look at it as a form of statecraft. They consider a variety of historical and current cases involving the use of economic threats and promises, including US policies toward Cuba, China, and North Korea and the Rhodesian sanctions. As well as case studies, they apply statistical analysis, and formal models to construct both substantive and theoretical views. Recent sanctions, for example against Iraq and Serbia, receive little attention. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Steve Chan is Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Colorado.

A. Cooper Drury is Tower Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor, the John G. Tower Center for Political Studies, Department of Political Science, Southern Methodist University, Dallas Texas.