Student Question
What are your views on the effectiveness of the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq? Were they an effective foreign policy tool for Canada?
Quick answer:
Economic sanctions on Iraq were largely ineffective as a foreign policy tool for Canada. While they weakened Iraq's military and possibly halted its WMD program, the sanctions primarily harmed Iraqi civilians, causing widespread suffering and resentment. The regime of Saddam Hussein remained insulated from the impact, using the sanctions as propaganda against the West. Although sanctions can raise international concern, they often fail to effectively target authoritarian governments without unduly punishing the population.
I tend to believe that economic sanctions are, for the most part, ineffective. They tend to hurt the ordinary population much more than they hurt the government we are trying to pressure, and then that same government, usually a dictatorship like Castro's or Hussein's, can demonize the US for the sanctions and blame all of the nation's ills on us. This helps them rally public support and enables them to stay in power.
Cuba and North Korea have done without American trade for decades, with no visible effect except the hunger and poverty of the peoples there. In Iraq, the sanctions did weaken the Iraqi military, which was outfitted with many American weapons, and certainly this was to our benefit. It also weakened the economy, and prevented critical supplies from reaching civilians. Some estimates have suggested that up to 400,000 civilians died during the sanctions, though that number is almost...
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I feel conflicted on this issue. In general, I think that sanctions can be an effective way to raise the brow of the international community in the perception of a particular nation. Sanctions are a way to stand opposed to a particular nation's policy or stance through the use of economic power or international shame. On one level, I understand and "get" this. Where I have trouble with this is where economic sanctions go after the people of a nation and not the leadership of it. Sanctions invariably hurt the people, the innocents, of a nation's behavior. The government is already well insulated against the harsh nature of sanctions. It's the people who end up suffering, causing and embedding more resentment towards the nation imposing the sanctions. This does not only seem more unfair to me, it can be considered to be more harmful to international relations.
Were economic sanctions on Iraq an effective foreign policy tool?
In my opinion, and in the minds of many people who know more about it than I do, the sanctions had an incredibly serious effect on the people of Iraq and very little of the somewhat intended effect of curbing the power or ambition of Saddam Hussein and his ruling party.
The fact that Iraq no longer had access to oil revenues post Gulf War led to widespread food distribution that still couldn't quite meet the needs of the people, and children in particular were very negatively effected.
Though sanctions can be effective in some situations, this was not one of them and the consequences were rather horrible for the Iraqi people, something that the people imposing the sanctions knew about but weren't willing to change their purported hard-line stance to remedy.
But this is nothing new, look at all the starving people in Europe during WWII, particularly early in the war, because of the blockade that was supposed to bring down Hitler or punish him for taking over.
Were the economic sanctions on Iraq effective as a foreign policy tool?
I would say that the sanctions imposed on Iraq before the fall of Saddam Hussein were partially effective, but only partially.
First of all, the sanctions were bypassed by unscrupulous people who were willing to help smuggle oil out of Iraq. This brought money into the country for Hussein's regime.
Second, the main impact of the sanctions seemed to fall on the people of the country. It is hard to craft sanctions that hurt the rulers but not the people, especially in a dictatorship like Iraq was.
Finally, I would say that the sanctions may have helped some because it appears that Hussein did stop his WMD program. But they did not persuade hiim to actually acknowledge that he stopped and so the world continued to fear the program and ulimately the US invaded.