International Economic Sanctions as a Means of “the Contract Enforcement” (Case of the Islamic Repyblic of Iran)

Abstract

During the last decades, economic sanctions were intensively used by different countries and international organisations as a tool of their foreign and economic policy. At the same time, there is no unanimity among experts concerning the eff ectiveness of sanctions. Within the framework of this article, the authors make an attempt to give their vision for some aspects of this problem through the analysis of punitive measures adopted against Iran. As a result, they come to a conclusion that, to certain extent, sanctions represent the only (or, at least, most preferable) alternative to the military settlement of international conflicts. As a result, despite all existing drawbacks of economic sanctions, they could not be excluded from the list of tools used by the international community to pursue its economic and political goals. The effectiveness of sanctions, in turn, depends on a number of reasons. International consensus concerning their implementation or, at least, support of major international players is considered by the authors to be one of the main factors determining the success of sanctions. Sutyrin and Kozhanov argue that it is also important to what degree real reasons for the implementation of sanctions correspond to the declared goals of their adoption. Subsequently, the authors put a question: whether economic means could be appropriate for the achievement of political goals. 

Keywords:

economic sanctions, economic enforcement, Iran