Economic Sanctions Advantages And Disadvantages

If a country is cooperative, the promise of rewards will help to achieve the dominate countries goals. For countries to refuse to cooperate, the easiest way for the superior country to achieve desired results is to impose sanctions on the country. Economic sanctions can be disastrous for a country that’s economy is export driven and are relatively low risk for the imposing nation. Cuba is an example of world powers imposing their will on a county of lesser means in such a way.

To start, embargoes in the United States started with Jefferson’s Embargo of 1807 (“The Embargo of 1807”). Embargoes are put in place by countries in hopes to maintain or restore peace between countries (“Sanctions, Embargoes and Restrictions”). They can be enacted for a number of different reasons including moral, political, or environmental objections or concerns (Berkheimer). Embargoes seek to encourage a country to change the regimes or groups that have allowed the behavior from which the concerns arise. They do this by way of bans on certain things like travel, arms, or

There are many countries that the United States frequently traded with who are now under a set of economic sanctions today. The sanctions were designed to restrict a country to the resources of their country and their allies until they comply with specific request. The US-Cuban sanctions were suppose was supposed to be in place until democracy and human rights were restored in Cuba. One effect of the sanction resulted in Cuban citizens only being able to purchase vehicles made before 1958. Although this is a minor effect of sanction, can you imagine if you were only able to possess a microwave that was made before 1958?

The new era began, Barack Obama and Raúl Castro announced that the United States of America and Cuba will restore full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than 50 years since severing ties in 1961. Barston 2006, defines diplomatic relations as “the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of states. It usually refers to international diplomacy, the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to issues of peace-making, trade, economics and culture” (p. 1). One of the major areas it will address is the lifting of the Cuban embargo. The embargo restricts trade, travel and communication between the two states which hinders the economic development of Cuba.

According to the journal article, the concept of deterrence is simple; it is the omission of a criminal act because of the fear of sanctions or punishments. Deterrence is an important foundation of the criminal justice system. Law enforcement is there to apprehend those that break the law, and to convince the public that there is a risk of apprehension and punishment if they commit a crime. Laws provide a host of different sanctions for the commission of offenses such as: fines, probation, imprisonment, mandatory minimum sentences, the “three strikes” law, and others are all enacted with the expatiation that sanction threats can deter crime is at the heart of the criminal Justice system. According to the journal article, there is an abundance of research about specific police, judicial, and correctional policies, as well as a more general theoretical work about deterrence mechanism, with the evidence to date, it is still flimsy.

Mandatory sentencing refers to those sentences which a judicial officer is required to impose no matter what the circumstances of the offence. In other words, the judicial officer has no discretion to impose a higher or lower sentence depending upon the nature of the crime. In the case of one punch laws, the mandatory sentence is a minimum so a judicial officer is able to impose a higher sentence if he or she thinks it’s appropriate. For example, a person who king hits someone will automatically get an eight-year mandatory minimum sentence. If someone else does the same thing one month later in a different place and is heard by a different judge he will get that same mandatory minimum sentence of eight years in prison and possibly longer if the judge thinks it’s suitable.

The United States of American has put embargos on many countries, for a multitude of reasons; however, I’m only going to focus on three: North Korea, Cuba, and Sudan.

Embargos are rarely ever explained to the normal citizen and when the explanation of the embargo comes down from the country leadership it is more than likely propaganda that says, “the United Nations is out to steel our land”. When the leadership of the most powerful countries are about to create an embargo on they should be force to explain to the poor farmer or worker that is barely able to make a buck. This might be enough to give pause on the harm you are causing the country that is about to get

But first, what is the definition and scope of the economic sanctions that US is threatening to put on Russia? From NewRepublic.com (2014), these sanctions would:

As a result, they are forced to move their business into other countries or make their costs more competitive in order to compete with domestic industries. Moreover, once a country enforces protectionism on their products, other countries tend to retaliate by enforcing even stronger protectionist policies. This is called a “trade war” and further prevents international businesses from exporting their products to other countries without paying high tariffs. An example of this is how the United States enforced extremely heavy protectionist policies on their products and services against Canada’s airplanes and other products. This greatly hurt Canada’s industries, and they retaliated by increasing the tariffs on their products; thus creating a trade

According to the journal article, How Much Do We Really Know about Criminal Deterrence? The concept of deterrence is simple: “it is the omission of a criminal act because of the fear of sanctions or punishments. Deterrence is an important foundation of the criminal justice system. Law enforcement is there to apprehend those that break the law, and to convince the public that there is a risk of apprehension and punishment if they commit a crime.” “Laws provide a host of different sanctions for the commission of offenses such as: fines, probation, imprisonment, mandatory minimum sentences, the (three strikes) law, and others are all enacted with the expatiation that sanction threats can deter crime is at the heart of the criminal Justice system.” According to the journal article How Much Do We Really Know about Criminal Deterrence? “There is an abundance of research about specific police, judicial, and correctional policies, as well as a more general theoretical work about deterrence mechanism, with the evidence to date, it is still flimsy.”

After the Second World War sanctions emerge as a major foreign policy instruments of the powerful nations. Globalization engendered the denunciation of the brute use of force as a primary method of international coercion. Cuba is one of the countries considered as a rogue state by the United States and its allies. The emergence of Cuba as a communist country in the western hemisphere in 1960, and the nationalization of a huge amount of US assets in Cuba by the then new regime led to the sanctions against Cuba. However, starting from the end of the 1980’s the Communist block begin falling apart. Cuba lost its international allies and became helpless both economically and politically in the international seen, and it is no longer a threat

The sanctions center around the country’s ballistic missile program has also claimed human rights abuses and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps(IRGC). The new law says the IRGC plays a large role in Iran’s international destabilization program, including terrorism and the ballistic missile program. The sanctions include the blocking property, exclusion from entering the US and pausing current transactions. However the Iranian government has accused the United States of Using the Sanctions to undermine the current nuclear deal. “President Trump has long criticized the agreement and vowed to pull the country out of it during his election campaign.”(CNN). Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi warned that “hostile” measures taken by the US would impact international relations and affairs.

Besides that, the pro of US embargo to Cuba is that trading with Cuba has not given much benefits. From the experienced, Cuba has doing business with several countries around the worlds. For example Canada, Europe and Latin America have been doing business with Cuba but the results is that they have not enjoyed a lot of economic and political benefits. It’s only the Cuban government that is enjoying the commercial and economic

The U.S. Department of the Treasury started administering the US economic sanctions against foreign states with the War against Britain in 1812, where Secretary Albert Gallatin imposed sanctions against Great Britain in retaliation for to the harassment of American sailors. After that there was OFAC played a key role in enforcing sanction against Cuba after the Cuban revolution; Iraq for the Kuwait invasion and recently against Russia in Ukrainian invasion. (Wikipedia)