Economic sanctions negatively impact targeted economies

The argument

Any judgement about whether sanctions work depends first on what "working" is taken to mean. Effectiveness can be defined as a success in producing the desired or intended result, so the test is not whether sanctions achieve some goal an observer has assigned to them, but whether they achieve the one they were imposed for. Critics usually measure sanctions against a single benchmark — whether the targeted government changes its behavior — and it is true that countries scarcely change their behavior as a result of sanctions. But that is not the sole objective of sanctions. They are primarily tools for non-violent opposition: an economic "punishment" for an action, a way for states to impose a cost for conduct they reject without firing a shot. It is in this way that economic sanctions are effective, because sanctioned countries usually find that their citizens get poorer and their development slows. The comparison that matters is with the alternatives available to a state that wants to impose such a cost. Going to war with a country may cost millions, if not billions, of dollars, and the economic consequences of war are mixed rather than simply punitive: while war may damage the economy and infrastructure of a country, it also helps create jobs in the military and manufacturing sectors, so some of the damage is offset by the activity the conflict itself generates. Sanctions don't have this caveat. They build nothing on either side; they simply hurt the economy by withholding resources, which is exactly the effect they are meant to produce, and they do it at a fraction of the price. The low cost of economic sanctions in comparison to other actions therefore increases rather than dilutes their effectiveness. Economic sanctions are effective in doing what they are designed to do: negatively impact a country's economy.

Premises

Counter-arguments

While economic sanctions may be effective in theory, the degree to which they are effective is limited by the diverse global market. A country only has so much leverage. If one country chooses not to trade with another, there is a high likelihood that a third country will be able to fill the void left by the country imposing the sanction. Economic sanctions may work, but their effectiveness is limited by outside forces.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Economic sanctions are intended to change behavior. Hurting a country's economy is the manner by which they accomplish this.