And this is precisely the kind of power that the USA *should* be using to get its goals, and a lot more often. What happened to the American policy of "dollars for bullets," a policy that would strike the viper not in the head where it can bite back -- but in the tail, pinning it.
If we only used our considerable economic pressure first and threats of our also mighty fist second.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
In general, I get the impression that economic sanctions don't actually work. I mean, we've been sanctioning Cuba for what, fifty years?
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
The record on economic sanctions had been at best mixed. While there's been some success when used as part of a cohesive carrot and stick strategy, they're rarely applied in that way, typically due to how they quickly get wrapped up in politics that have nothing to do with the success of the strategy. This happens especially often with economic sanctions because they usually require extensive and long term cooperation between executive and legislative agents.