Opinion: Are economic sanctions a useful foreign-policy tool?

On the international stage, strengthening solidarity in a nonconfrontational manner is no doubt a welcome benefit. However, in times when there are unresolved international disputes, military intervention and risk of maldistribution of necessities for life, viewing economic sanctions as cure-all policy is unwise.

In the face of numerous contentious situations, governments of powerful countries are attempting to navigate the scenes in favor of their advantage. Levying economic sanctions could thereby exacerbate tensions between different powerhouses and be far from effecting a positive outcome. One country blocked by such sanctions can cement its ties with other ones of the same camp, which would inexorably aggravate existing disputes.

This could lead to elevating risk of armed warfare or shutting down of crucial avenues of negotiation. Dictatorship countries, for example, typically have a propensity to criticize foreign encompassing policy stifling them. These nations would decide retorsion taking military approach, such as launching ballistic missiles. They would refuse calls to engage in diplomatic discussion, claiming that their retaliative action should be taken for granted, and also, they are likely to reinforce political links with other countries that share the same ideology.

In addition, economic sanctions can be harmful not only for people in need in sanctioned countries but also for those of adjacent nations whose life has been relying on imported items from the sanctioned countries. Poor households are not getting the goods they need, while the wealthy people at the top of the sanctioned countries, such as dictators and military leaders, controlling the supplies. Furthermore, as trade around the world is now linked one another, the repercussions of economic sanctions will be felt by all other countries in the form of higher prices for oil and wheat, for example.

Thus, if we were to foster peaceful resolutions, economic sanctions are not to be determined since they could aggravate geopolitical confrontation, risk of warfare and global economic situations.