Winning Without Killing: The Case for Targeted Sanctions

Abstract

Sanctions are a frequently employed diplomatic instrument to exert influence. However, it is also a relatively poorly understood instrument that, while seductive because it seems easy to employ and relatively risk-free, is also criticized for lack of effectiveness. In particular in the past decade UN sanctions have undergone a significant development. The chapter presents how sanctions changed from their classical and comprehensive form to a more recent targeted version. Whereas comprehensive sanctions aimed at whole states, today the targets of sanctions are mostly individuals, entities and specific economic sectors. The situations in which sanctions have been used and adapted to achieve foreign policy objectives with the simultaneous objective to reduce their humanitarian impact has grown overtime, for instance by including the utilization of sanctions in post-conflict contexts. Especially, the objective of this chapter is to review the opportunities and challenges that characterize targeted sanctions in order to provide recommendations on how to enhance their effectiveness. The argument of the chapter is that targeted sanctions are more demanding in terms of knowledge and maintenance compared to comprehensive sanctions. If the international community, or individual states, wish to rely effectively on this foreign policy instrument, then ways to acquire more information about targeted societies and threats that are to be countered as well as the creation of institutional capacity to monitor and enforce sanctions is key to making sanctions useful.