Shrewd Sanctions: Statecraft and State Sponsors of Terrorism [Hardcover]

Meghan L. O'Sullivan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2003

O'Sullivan, an expert on the use of positive and negative tools of economic statecraft, argues that in the post-September 11 international climate, the US will be even more willing to use its economic power to advance its foreign policy goals than in the past. This impulse, she argues, can lead to a more effective foreign policy, given the many ways in which sanctions and incentives can forcefully advance US interests. However, a recalibration of these tools - sanctions in particular - is necessary in order for them to live up to their potential. Critical to such a reassessment is a thorough understanding of how the post-Cold War international environment - globalization and American primacy in particular - has influenced how sanctions work. O'Sullivan addresses this issue in a thorough examination of sanctions-dominated policies in place against Iran, Iraq, Libya and Sudan. Her findings not only hightlight the many ways in which sanctions have often been poorly suited to acheive their goals in the past, but also suggest how policymakers might use these tools to better effect in the future.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This well-written book offers thoughtful analysis and pragmatic prescriptions...." -- General Brent Scowcroft, former U.S. national security adviser

"[O'Sullivan's] analysis and recommendations will be invaluable to policymakers and stakeholders engaged with this important issue." -- Samuel R. Berger, former U.S. national security adviser --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Meghan L. O'Sullivan is a former fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies program at the Brookings Institution. She is currently a member of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 424 pages
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815706022
• ISBN-13: 978-0815706021
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,262,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crafting Effective Sanctions, May 16, 2004

By 

Jeffery Steele (Taipei, Taiwan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shrewd Sanctions: Statecraft and State Sponsors of Terrorism (Paperback)

Over the last two decades, American policymakers have increasingly used sanctions to punish countries that transgress U.S. and international norms, or attack U.S. interests. Sometimes these sanctions are coordinated with multilateral sanctions; sometimes the U.S. applies them alone. Sometimes the U.S. puts forward comprehensive sanctions against a country; sometimes it only sanctions particular companies or organizations in a country rather than the country itself. In some cases, the U.S. continually adjusts its sanctions against a particular country; in other cases, those sanctions remain fairly static.

The variety of sanction packages begs a question: which ones actually work in changing the behavior of the state being sanctioned? Part of the surprising multifaceted answer to this question, according to Meghan O' Sullivan, is that many policymakers don't even seem to care. Instead, they look upon sanctions as a generic expression of disapproval against the country being sanctioned -- with U.S. domestic interests often affecting the actual shape that disapproval takes -- rather than as a practical tool of statecraft.

O'Sullivan's book is an attempt to rescue sanctions from this current state by showing their potential as effective policy to change the sanctioned state's behavior. She does this by closely examining four case studies where the U.S. employed sanctions against countries it deemed to be state sponsors of terrorism - Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Sudan.

This book's twin cardinal virtues are its thoroughness and its cautious conclusions. Despite footnoting every twist and turn in how the U.S. employed sanctions in the four cases, and what subsequently happened in those sanctioned countries, O'Sullivan never overreaches in her claims. Many places in the book, she is careful to note that proving what sanctions accomplished (or did not accomplish) in any particular case is extremely difficult to separate from other factors affecting the outcome. Nevertheless, she superbly teases out some interesting and valuable conclusions from the data.

At the end of her book, O'Sullivan focuses on what policymakers need to do to make sanctions effective policy rather than just dramatic policy. She believes they should employ sanctions that are flexible, as well as maintain open channels of communication with the sanctioned country. Too often, U.S. policymakers have used rigid and redundant guidelines for sanctions that don't allow the target to be rewarded for good behavior. Without this flexibility, there is almost no incentive for the country to change. This causes the U.S. sanctions regime against it to harden into permanent U.S. policy, even when there is little interest in either country for this to happen.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best in Class, July 19, 2003

By 

Bruce McNamer (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shrewd Sanctions: Statecraft and State Sponsors of Terrorism (Paperback)

It is unfortunate that the debate with respect to the use of sanctions so often boils down to a religious one - sanctions good or sanctions bad. What nuance there is in that argument often seems as similarly simplistic - multi-lateral sanctions good, unilateral sanctions bad. In this context, Meghan O'Sullivan's "Shrewd Sanctions" presents a timely and carefully reasoned call for a more finely calibrated approach to the use of sanctions as a tool of foreign policy. In each of four case studies covering Libya, Iraq, Iran and Sudan, O'Sullivan evaluates sanctions regimes against a set of criteria which includes their economic and political impact, effectiveness relative to the goals laid out for them, the varied costs associated with their imposition, and the relative effectiveness of these sanctions regimes vs. alternative policy instruments. In her final chapter, O'Sullivan lays out a series of specific recommendations for policy makers to strengthen the performance of sanctions.

"Shrewd Sanctions" does seem to me one of those rare books able to appeal to a "crossover" audience - of sanctions "experts" on the one hand, and relative foreign policy novices on the other. That it does so is a tribute to O'Sullivan's fluid writing, rigorous and straightforward analysis, and her ability to continually frame the most specific instances and arguments in a broader context - both historically and in the most current and urgent geo-political sense. I expect this to be a staple in classrooms and in the foreign policy establishment for some time to come.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A well-balanced perspective, March 14, 2003

By A Customer

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This review is from: Shrewd Sanctions: Statecraft and State Sponsors of Terrorism (Paperback)

Most of us want the interational community to check countries that support terrorism, violate the human rights of their citizens, or threaten cross-border aggression. At the same time, we hope to avoid resort to projecting military power in the event of each transgression. Sanctions, therefore, should be the ideal tool. Yet, looking back in recent history, have sanctions really worked efficiently and effectively in any important case?
Meghan O'Sullivan's book tries to answer that question -- and to offer insights for those considering the use of the sanctions in the future -- by providing a detailed analysis of 4 recent cases where sanctions have been used against countries supporting terrorism or cross-border aggression. Her analysis, which finds no examples of truly successful sanctions regimes, suggests 4 rules for thinking about sanctions use in the future:
1. Unilateral sanctions are rarely effective; broad-based international action is far more powerful
2. Secondardy sanctions -- like Helms-Burton, where the US sought to punish constituencies in sovereign nations that saw Cuba differently than did the US Congress -- are counterproductive
3. Effective sanctions regimes need to be tailored carefully to specific goals
4. Flexibility -- the ability to recalibrate sanctions as the targeted country shifts its behavior -- is critical to the success of any sanctions effort
If these rules were taken to heart, O'Sullivan's analysis suggests that sanctions might prove to be a much more effective tool than they have been in the past. This conclusion offers hope, though one is left to wonder if US and UN political processes will ever permit sanctions to be more than they have been so often in the past: a salve meant primarily for the abrasions inflicted on special interest groups in the sanctioning countries by other thorny instruments of foreign policy.