ENG 123 Final Project: Final Research Essay
Student:
“Do sanctions imposed as punishment by international community really work?”
In the last few years, we have been hearing more and more the word “sanctions”. It
became a new word in our vocabulary and we starting to get used to hearing this word on the
news or reading about it in the newspaper. But what exactly are those sanction, and why are they
used so often? What is the purpose of those sanctions and the main question do the sanctions
really work as a punishment? My answer to the main question is no, sanctions imposed as a
punishment by international community do not always work because they lack enforcement and
correct regulations, they hurt innocent people rather than the government officials, as well as
countries with sanctions, can continue trade amongst themselves.
The word sanction first known use was in the 15th century and a simple meaning is an
action that is taken or an order that is given to force a country to obey international laws by
limiting or stopping trade with that country, by not allowing economic aid for that country, etc.
(Miriam-Webster, 2016). There are several types of sanctions, but the most common are trade
sanctions, economic sanctions, diplomatic sanctions, and military sanctions. A trade sanction is a
trade penalty imposed by one nation onto one or more other nations. Sanctions can be unilateral,
imposed by only one country on one other country, or multilateral, imposed by one or more
countries on a number of different countries (Investopedia, 2016). Economic sanctions are
domestic penalties applied unilaterally by one country (or multilaterally, by a group of countries)
on another country (or group of countries). Economic sanctions may include various forms of
trade barriers and restrictions on financial transactions (Investopedia, 2016). Diplomatic
sanctions are political measures taken to express disapproval or displeasure at a certain action
through diplomatic and political means, rather than affecting economic or military relations.
Measures include limitations or cancellations of high-level government visits or expelling or
withdrawing diplomatic missions or staff (Masters, J 2015). Military sanctions can range from
carefully targeted military strikes to degrade a nation’s conventional or non-conventional
capabilities, to the less aggressive form of an arms embargo to cut off supplies of arms or dual-
use items (Wikipedia, 2015). Sanctions are often viewed as an alternative to military force. By
punishing an offending party economically, socially, or politically, rather than militarily, those
who impose sanctions hope to solve a conflict without the mass suffering and sacrifice required
by war. The use of sanctions also comes with significant risks. Sanctions often have uncertain
and irreversible consequences and can cause great human suffering.
Sanctions lack enforcement and correct regulations. Enforcement of sanctions involves
large resources of naval or custom task forces from NATO whose objectives are to guard and
monitor the activity of countries with sanctions. In a lot of cases, NATO overlooks several entry
points where small arms and light weapons get smuggled into those countries. If a country
