The extent of usefulness of political and economic sanctions in foreign affairs. The Cases of South Africa, Islamic Republic of Iran and the Russian Federation

Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to find whether political and economic sanctions imposed by the West, namely by such international institutions as the EU, UN and a number of countries including the US were effective punitive actions for the policy change in the three essentially different cases. The data are based on the case studies (triangulation) of South Africa (1962-1994), Islamic Republic of Iran (1995-in the phase of negotiations) and the Russian Federation (2014-current). Discussion of the findings revealed that effectiveness of sanctions on the three cases under consideration largely depends on the fear of international isolation, high economic costs, saliency and promptness of the goal, length of sanctions and the type of sanctions imposed. While the economic and political sanctions imposed on South Africa were effective for the policy change as they impacted the country politically to a larger extent and economically to a lesser extent, they were partially successful in the case of Iran economically to a greater extent and politically to a lesser extent. The preliminary assessment of the effectiveness of sanctions in driving a policy change of Russian behavior in Ukraine is negative.