What History Tells Us About Sanctions

5/11/2022 3:46:26 PM

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Do sanctions really topple regimes? History shows they've had mixed results. CC BY-NC-ND / Marco Fieber

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has prompted unprecedented sanctions. The question of whether they will have an effect on the course of the war is still open. History shows they have been used for centuries, with mixed results.

This content was published on May 11, 2022 - 09:00 May 11, 2022 - 09:00

Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva for SWI swissinfo.ch as well as the BBC.

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Deutsch (de) Was Sanktionen bewirken und was nicht
Italiano (it) Cosa ci insegna la storia sulle sanzioni
Français (fr) Ce que l'Histoire nous apprend au sujet des sanctions
Pусский (ru) Чего можно добиться санкциями, а чего нет?

Medieval kings happily expelled foreign wool traders if they were having a spat with other kings. They relaxed and tightened taxes and even bans on imports, depending on whether they were feeling friendly or not towards their country of origin.

In the American civil war, and in World War One, physical blockades were imposed on the Confederates, and on Germany and its allies, in a bid to prevent them getting any supplies, including food, which could fuel their war effort.

Economic damage for positive change?

The strategy seems simple enough. Countries imposing sanctions hope that by undermining a hostile state's economy, that state may stop doing whatever it is that is deemed to be hostile. Just days after Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, governments from the West imposed a slew of sanctions on Russia, unprecedented in scope. These include a ban on Russian flights over the United States and European airspace, the ban of exports of luxury goods to Russia as well as wide-ranging measures aimed at paralysing the country's financial system.

Or, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put it,“the European Union and its partners are working to cripple Putin's ability to finance his war machine”.

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