Next: an embargo on sanctions
The Cincinnati Post, July 9
Over the years, Congress, in response to one crisis or another, has imposed about 100 separate sanctions on 75 countries despite the proven fact that sanctions are an ineffectual tool of foreign policy.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Cuba for 38 years with the goal of toppling Fidel Castro. Castro is still there, and Canadian and European companies get to build all the best resorts.
Some sanctions - those against Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea and Sudan, for example - express a legitimate moral outrage against cruel regimes but accomplish little practical good. The sanctions rarely hurt the insulated leaders of those regimes but they do punish the poorest and weakest of their populations.
Sanctions are popular with Congress because they seem cost-free, but a good case can be made that they are counter productive. American industries and farms lose markets and U.S. energy companies lose development opportunities that competitors are only too happy to exploit. The U.S. government loses access and influence in the targeted country. Since the sanctions are imposed unilaterally, they tend to irritate our allies, especially when Congress tries to take reprisals against the businesses of friendly countries.
Once imposed, sanctions are difficult to lift; it's a tough vote for lawmakers. That's why Congress this summer will automatically renew futile sanctions against Libya and Iran. At campaign time, no one wants to be portrayed as pro-ayatollah.
Sen. Richard Luger, the Indiana Republican and one of the country's leading lights on foreign policy, has introduced a bill with bipartisan support to bring some order to the sanctions mess. His bill would require any proposed sanctions to have a clear sense of purpose, to be justified by cost-benefit analysis and to have a sunset date so they don't run on forever. A useful addition would be to give presidents a free hand to lift sanctions.
The Bush administration hasn't spoken on the issue yet, but Secretary of State Colin Powell is against open-ended economic sanctions and has asked Congress not to pass any more. The administration should either get behind this bill or draft a sanctions reform package of its own.
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