| The effectiveness of economic sanctions as a foreign policy tool is debated among policymakers. However, a rising tide of international support for sanctions gives today's sanctions against the Iranian government more hope than ever before. With the United Nations Security Council on board, and a large number of Iran's largest trading partners extending unilateral sanctions, trade gaps formed by one country are less likely to be filled by trade with others. The statistics point in the direction of a suffering oil industry in Iran due to a lack of investment in modernizing its infrastructure. Unemployment and high inflation continue to put pressure on an already-volatile, suppressed population. This paper analyzes these dynamics in the context of answering the question of what constitutes an environment conducive to sanction effectiveness and whether sanctions hold promise in the case of Iran. In the long run, stagnation in the primary industry of a country cannot be sustained and thus the most recent round of sanctions, if sustained over time, has a higher-than-ever chance of success in forcing the Iranian government to make concessions in its nuclear program and terrorism support. |
