Understanding global security - Peter Hough

ECONOMIC THREATS TO SECURITY
They cause collateral damage
Economic sanctions have aroused most controversy on the grounds that they
represent a blunt instrument that tends to have more impact on ordinary civilians in
the target state rather than the government. These fears became most pronounced
in the 1990s with evidence of starvation among Iraqis in the wake of long-standing
UN sanctions. There is a good case to be made that these deprivations were more
the fault of the Iraqi government than the UN sanctions. Saddam Hussein’s regime
undoubtedly prioritized military rebuilding over famine relief in allocating expenditure
from their shrinking budget and milked the suffering of their people in order
to gain support for a lifting of the measures. Wherever the fault ultimately lies,
however, there is no doubt that many Iraqis died over the last decade as a result of
economic hardship resulting from political action rather than any natural disaster.
This illustrates another, related, argument against economic sanctions: their success
rests on the assumption that the target state government will act in a rational way.
They can have negative effects on neighbouring
states
The fall-out from economic sanctions can spread beyond the civilians of the target
state, across the border to neighbouring states. States which have strong trading
links with another that is subjected to mandatory sanctions are in danger of suffering
from the effects of having such ties cut. The UN sanctions on South Africa, for
example, had profound implications for small states like Lesotho and Swaziland which
were virtually economically dependent on their neighbour.
Full implementation is impossible
As with many areas of global policy, the business of getting agreement to impose
economic sanctions is difficult but represents less than half of the battle. Implementing
economic sanctions is a highly complex matter in an increasingly interdependent
global system. Effectively getting every company in every country to end all interaction
with a target state is a huge task for the United Nations, particularly when
some governments are unenthusiastic about the sanctions or lack the capacity
to control firms based in their territory. The evasion of sanctions was a major problem
for the UN actions against Rhodesia. The South African government continued to
trade out of sympathy for its fellow minority white settler regime and many European
and American MNCs blatantly ignored the Security Council Resolutions.
They can mobilize the population of a target state
behind their government
Even if the hardships endured by the population of a state under UN economic
sanctions are more the responsibility of their own government’s negligence than that
97