Economic Sanctions

Economic sanctions are penalties levied against a country, its officials, or private citizens, either as punishment or in an effort to provide disincentives for the targeted policies and actions.

• Economic sanctions can range from travel bans and export restrictions to trade embargos and asset seizures.
• They provide a policy tool short of military force for punishing or forestalling objectionable actions.
• Economic sanctions can also be a blunt and ineffective policy tool, imposing insufficient costs on the targeted governments and disproportionate ones on their most vulnerable populations.