A Tentative Analysis Of International Economic Sanctions

Sanctions is a diplomatic tool that has a very long history, the ancient Greeks had announced the first sanction according to the extant historical data. From that time till now, sanctions is a very popular diplomatic tool. As the advance of two industrial revolutions and the development of the modern science and technology, the connection among the nations around are getting closer, they had been depending on each other more than the early days. As a result the frequency of sanction used as a diplomatic tool tends to grow. This article had combed the concept of economic sanction, tries to discuss the justice of economic sanction. At the meantime, this article tries to probe the efficiency of economic sanction from a new angle:it compared the efficiency and cost between economic sanction and military strike, showed that in some circumstances, though economic is a diplomatic tool of low cost, it does not fit for all situations, sometimes even no effect. Furthermore, it sometimes bring along bad impact. Due to that, we are obliged to intensify the research on economic sanctions. Eventually, the author hopes that this article can help China use the economic sanctions as a powerful weapon to maintain her own national interest.The first part of this article is introduction. It mainly presented the meaning and target of this article, combed the research update for both the domestic and foreign researchers, show the creativity of this article. As the international environment is changing, the growing waging of economic sanction had urged the research on research of it. From the extant research of scholars, it showed that the focus point is on its efficiency:how to increase the efficiency of economic sanction? What features does a successful sanction possess? They hope to guide the future sanctions to fulfill its target. But few were focusing on the issue of what sanction is a rightful sanction. In the meantime, there are less papers focused on the comparison of economic sanction and other diplomatic tool such as military strike, which along with the issue of rightfulness, were precisely the keypoints of this article. It tried to give the features of rightful economic sanction and showed that sometimes the military strike is the more fitful tool than economic sanction.The first chapter of the main body mainly showed the connotation of sanction. Though sanction had a very long history, during a very longtime since its appearance, it does not have a unique definition. The word of "sanction" emerged very early in ancient China, at first it was not the meaning of what it is now. The modern "sanction" fired appeared in Europe as a theological punishment method. According to the modern international law, economic sanction is considered as a compulsory means in order to achieve the national value. It has many forms by different sorting standard. As the technology advanced, it had derived many new forms, improved its precision and specification. The economic sanction had specific target, but one should not judging if economic sanction is successful only by if it had achieved its target. Sometimes, even if a sanction had achieved all its targets, it in some way may not be called successful. For a successful sanction, there are two aspects that must pay attention:one velocity, the other is amount. The sanction must cost a great amount on economy within a relatively short time. It has to be resolute and quick. In the latest century, the cases of economic sanction are getting more and more.The emphasis of the second chapter is rightness. The rightfulness of economic sanction was rarely studied in the past days so that there was no specific definition. But based on the theory of "just war", the author tries to abstract some features of "rightful sanction". After that, the author had put these features into two famous cases: one is Iraq and the other is South Africa. The economic sanction on Iraq had caused serious humanitarian crisis, put thousands of Iraqi citizen into misery. Plus, while causing a great impact on Iraqi economy, it also caused a great impact on global economy. In the last, it did not achieve its original targets. The US had to use its military forces to subvert the Saddam regime. On the contrary, the economic sanction on South Africa had neither humanitarian crisis nor causing great loss to other country. Its main impact was precisely limited on the White Regime and white industrial business. It had little impact on common people. In the last, the white regime of South Africa had abandoned its apartheid policy. Then in1994, a black people of Nelson Mandela, was elected as the president of South Africa. It lives up to successful.The third chapter was focused on the efficiency. But its emphasis was not traditionally on the Crosswise Comparison among similar cases. Rather than that, this article is trying to compare military strike to economic sanction, which was from the beginning the substitute of military strike. In the past, the cost of war was huge and connections among countries were not as close as now. So the economical sanction was considered wild. But as the technology advanced, the "zero casualty" had come true. And as the economic globalization advanced, one country is impossible to keep itself safe while causing a great loss to other country. In some specific circumstances, the military strike is better than economic sanction.The fourth chapter in an introspection on economical sanction. During these days, the economic sanction had emerged many defects both from institution and its features. It urges the research on how to improve its efficiency. Besides the humanitarian crisis and great mutual losses, a new phenomenon was worth alerting: some hard power was trying to fulfill other purpose in the disguise of economic sanction. Meanwhile, the economic sanction was on its road to higher precision and specification in order to avoid harming the common people. As our motherland is growing stronger, it urges us to familiar with the economic sanctions. We must know how to decrease the losses to a minimum while compromising a sanction. Furthermore, we should also know how to manipulate the sanction to safeguard our legitimate national interests.Based on the above chapters, it concludes that the research on rightfulness of sanction is crucial, in some levels the efficiency of economic sanction is directed linked to its rightfulness. Meanwhile, we should avoid being superstitious to economic sanction, because in some specific circumstances, it may not be as useful as military strike. We should evaluate its efficiency before using. As our motherland is growing stronger, it urges us to familiar with the economic sanctions. We must know how to decrease the losses to a minimum while compromising a sanction. Furthermore, we should also know how to manipulate the sanction to safeguard our legitimate national interests. The author hopes this article can be useful to the risen of our motherland.