Sanctions are a common tool used to coerce states and deter aggression. These sanctions typically consist of a combination of trade restrictions, financial sanctions and asset freezes. They can be devastating for a targeted country and result in economic contraction, a weakening of the currency and decline of foreign investments.
However, their impact varies depending on the targeted country’s economy and degree of global integration. In the context of greater economic interdependence, more repercussions are seen by sanction-imposing countries than in the past. This raises the question of whether or not it is possible to effectively impose and manage sanctions.
To be effective, a sanction regime needs to impose sanctions with clear and well-defined objectives that are linked to the specific problem at hand (e.g. stopping the escalation of military aggression). The GSDB can help with these challenges: it offers a rich dataset for tracking sanctions by target and by type, allows for an in-depth analysis of how trade costs are changing over time, and provides a clearly defined metric that captures the extent to which a sanction has succeeded.
In addition to the technical challenges of assessing the success of sanctions, there are also important policy issues to consider. For example, sanctions are often imposed without any democratic debate or careful economic analysis. They are also rarely based on a collective decision by the Security Council, given that permanent members like Russia and China can block resolutions through their veto power. This can lead to sanctions that are indiscriminate or that lack proper legal backing, creating unintended side effects.