AFF/ROGUE STATES/SANCTIONS

NEW TARGETED SANCTIONS CAN BE EFFECTIVE

TARGETED SANCTIONS ARE BEST WAY TO UNDERMINE POWER OF REGIME ELITES

Gibson, 1999 (Lt. Col. Susan S., Judge Advocate General's Corps, US Army, Emory International Law Review, Spring)

For target nations, sanctions or other actions must be used as a tool to return the costs of illegal actions to the regime elites who committed the acts. Much has been written about public choice theory in democracies, with every possible analysis of how the structure of the government causes policymakers to externalize costs. It is time to focus this analysis on nondemocratic nations, where totalitarian government structures have allowed ruthless regime elites to raise externalization to an art form. Sanctioning a "nation" will not bring change, for "nations" do not make decisions. For sanctions or other actions to be effective, they must target the decisionmakers. Broad sanctions will only serve to increase the suffering of the politically powerless members of society, thereby bringing a double curse to the international community: ineffective sanctions compounded by increased human suffering. It is time to seriously search for effective sanctions or other measures that will bring the [*245] costs home to the regime elites. For both sender and target nations, government structures matter, but for the target nation, government structures matter more.

TARGETED SANCTIONS ARE MORALLY SUPERIOR TO COMPREHENSIVE SANCTIONS

Gibson, 1999 (Lt. Col. Susan S., Judge Advocate General's Corps, US Army, Emory International Law Review, Spring)

Morally and ethically, targeted sanctions are far superior to comprehensive sanctions. As Clawson noted, "If one of the aims of sanctions is to forestall the horrors of war, then surely it would be desirable for sanctions to be even more accurately targeted on the guilty than is war." n228 Although comprehensive sanctions have provisions permitting the shipment of medical supplies and humanitarian foodstuffs, n229 merely allowing the shipment of supplies into the country does not guarantee that the supplies will reach their intended populations. The concept of targeted sanctions goes beyond the goal of ameliorating the suffering of the population. The idea is to increase the suffering of the ruling elite by hitting them where it hurts, without also inflicting unnecessary pain on the general population.

FINANCIAL SANCTIONS ARE MORE EFFECTIVE THAN COMPREHENSIVE SANCTIONS

Gibson, 1999 (Lt. Col. Susan S., Judge Advocate General's Corps, US Army, Emory International Law Review, Spring)

The Hufbauer study concluded that financial sanctions were successful in 4 1 OX, of cases, whereas trade-only sanctions only had a 25% success rate. For cases with combined trade and financial sanctions, the success rate was at the median, with a 33% success rate. The Hufbauer authors credit the greater success rate of financial sanctions to the increased ability of financial sanctions to "hit the pet projects or personal pockets of government officials who are in a position to influence policy." As an added benefit, they point out that financial sanctions are also not as disruptive and costly for sending nations.