From Comprehensive to Smart and Fairer Sanctions

Abstract

The Cold War was not yet settled when its legacy intruded on the struggle for control over the Security Council's policies, and sanctions. Whereas enhancement of humanitarian values in sanctions practices is touted by many as the major achievement of the post-Cold War period, we posit that, P5 dominance resulted in a rash of old-style economic warfare practices concealed as UN sanctions. The unacceptable humanitarian impacts on civilian populations, unlike during the civilizational struggles of the Cold War, could no longer be excused as unavoidable collateral damage. The evolution of UN sanctions from comprehensive to targeted measures was, however, at least as urgently necessitated by the fundamental paradigm shifts caused by the emergence of a new class of non-government threat actors. The existing UN sanctions practices that were designed as state-to-state coercive policy mechanisms were useless tools against these new opponents. Although these threat actors were usually the remnants of the P5 ’s Cold War allies, and their new conflicts merely eruptions of neglected post-colonial issues or continuations of Cold War proxy contests, they could now all be turned over to UN mitigation.