Punitive diplomatic, economic, and social actions taken by the international community against a state that has violated international law. Technically they may also refer to military actions with the same purpose. They range from suspension of diplomatic contact, and blockage of communication, through restriction or cessation of some or all trade, to military strikes. The United Nations Security Council has the legal right to instigate compulsory sanctions, but this was little exercised during the Cold War because of the paralysis of that body by the veto.
Sanctions were applied to Rhodesia in 1966, and more lightly to South Africa. Post-Cold War, they were applied to Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait, and to Serbia in the context of the messy war that followed the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Fierce arguments continue as to whether economic sanctions are an effective form of political pressure, or whether they merely inflict hardship on the population while strengthening the position of the offending government. All sanctions regimes attract profit-seeking smugglers, and the case of Iraq suggests that very harsh economic sanctions, even when accompanied by military action, do not guarantee either a change of policy or a change of government.
— Barry Buzan
