Efficacy of Iraqi Sanctions
As United States foreign policy has matured in the wake of the Vietnam Conflict, a seemingly bloodless, less nationally controversial tool than war has emerged. The United States has begun to slap economic sanctions on rogue nations in lieu of or in addition to sending in the Armed Forces. This policy of sanctioning nations begs one to ponder the legitimacy thereof. A specific case to be examined is the Iraqi conflict. In response to Iraqís hostile takeover of Kuwait in 1990, the U.S along with United Nations implemented a sanction against Iraq. After the Gulf War had ceased, a treaty was drafted which included the lifting of the sanctions should Iraq agree to certain stipulations. To this date, the UN has ruled that the treaty has not been upheld by Iraq thus keeping the sanctions in place. In the years since the initial implementation, economic sanctions have proven to be largely ineffective in the achievement of foreign policy goals in Iraq while having produced a number of other negative results. Sanctions have not been able to force the Hussein regime out of power nor have they been able to halt Iraqís import and export of key goods. While failing in those ends, sanctions have succeeded in bringing about a massive humanitarian crisis for the Iraqi peopleóone which seems may never end.
Before the Persian Gulf War, the Iraqi military was one of the best in the Middle East. This fact caused Iraqi leadership to deduce that, being a powerful Mid-eastern force, no one would challenge their hostile take-over of tiny Kuwait. Unfortunately for Iraq, the rest of world did not let this act go unnoticed and began the Gulf War. The once proud Iraqi forces were reduced to almost nothing after the war. Th...
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...o death by the economic sanctions and they feel as though there is no end in sight. Tareq Aziz, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, sums up the bleak Iraqi sentiments, "We donít see a light at the end of the tunnel. There is a tunnel after the tunnel." ("Press Conference")
Works Cited
Cortright, David and George A. Lopez. The Sanctions Decade: Assessing UN Strategies in the 1990ís. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2000
"Press Conference of the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Tareq Aziz." The Digital Voice of Iraq. n. pag. Online. Internet. 21 Oct. 2000. Available FTP: http://www.multimania.com/iraq/tareq-aziz12-11-98.htm
Selden, Zachary. Economic Sanctions as Instruments of American Foreign Policy. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1999
Simons, Geoff. Imposing Economic Sanctions: Legal Remedy or Genocidal Tool?. Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 1999
Theory and the Study of World Politics.” in New Thinking in International Relations Theory. ed. Doyle, Michael w. and G. John Ikenberry (eds.) (Westview Press: 1997). Klotz, Audie. “Norms Reconstituting Interests: Global Racial Equality and US Sanctions Against South Africa.” International Organization, Vol. 49, No. 3 (Summer, 1995), 451-478. Krasner, Stephen D. “Structural Causes and Regimes Consequences: Regimes as Intervening Variables.” International Organization. Vol. 36, No. 2, International
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