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Is there a situation where sanctions have done anything other than impoverish the general population?
by tonyedgecombe 5y ago
Is there a situation where sanctions have done anything other than impoverish the general population?
- s_dev 5y agoYes, the sanctions aimed at the oligarchs impoverish the oligarchs.
- ancientworldnow 5y agoImpoverished or made slightly less obscenely wealthy. How many are truly penniless and only surviving through state welfare etc?
- knodi123 5y agoI don't know if you can call a slight reduction in an unimaginably massive fortune "impoverishment". Putin could lose tens of billions of dollars and still not be able to see poverty with a telescope.
- belorn 5y agoThe treaties on conflict resources and blood diamonds in particular seems to have worked fairly well in reducing the money flow to war lords. It seems about as effective as arm trade regulations. Naturally it is impossible to prove if either is effective since we can't run a control group with identical circumstances.
- gpsx 5y agoFor better or worse I think that is often the plan. First, presumably the government cares about the welfare of its people. Second it can make the people unhappy with the government.
- marginalia_nu 5y agoThat sure seems to have worked out well in North Korea and Iran and Cuba and also the last time we tried it with Russia. The presence of external threats, in general, tend to strengthen support for dictators rather than to weaken them.
- phatfish 5y agoSurely it has? All those countries are crippled economically and only get attention on a global stage by saber rattling or when they decide to start looking to negotiate their way out. I hardly think Kim Jong Un has "strengthened support" from NK citizens, bar the top elite. They just get shot if they step out of line. Iran has a similar environment of fear, though not as totally controlling. I'm not sure what Cuba is like for political repression, but the people are hardly supportive of the government as i understand it. For what its worth, i don't believe imposing sanctions on Iran/Cuba is reasonable now. With the right diplomacy Iran looks to want to come to an agreement, and Cuba is no threat to anyone. Russia is in a better position while they have support from China. But there is still an affect. Also, i don't think it's possible to happily trade with Russia as if they were an ally while Putin grabs land from other eastern European countries.
- marginalia_nu 5y agoRight, but it hasn't actually accomplished anything other than making their populations suffer. Every single one of these regimes are still around. The sanctions haven't succeeded in anything other than making the countries more miserable places to live in. If the premise was that the governments would care about their people and give in, or the people would turn on their governments, then no, that's just not happened.
- gpsx 5y agoJust to make a counter point, we only know when this doesn't work. We don't know the times people relied in diplomatic solutions rather than suffer these consequences.
- marginalia_nu 5y agoSanctions are pretty publicly visible.
- avgcorrection 5y agoSaber rattling by Cuba?
- fulafel 5y agoThe oil embargo against the US improved car fuel economy.
- tzs 5y agoHow about the sanctions on Iran to try to get them to stop pursuing nuclear weapons? They made a deal to stop in exchange for removal of sanctions. That worked for a while but then a few years later the US reimposed sanctions claiming that the deal was not working (but was unable to cite any evidence to support this), so this time the sanctions provide no incentives.
- jdbernard 5y agoThe idea, as I understand, is that it's better to impoverish the population than to kill them (and us) in open warfare. It's not something we want to do.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 5y agoWhat is the alternative?