The Evolution of Sanctions as a Tool of the US Foreign Policy: theory and Practice

The use of sanction as a geo-economic tool of foreign policy by the US has attracted much scholarly attention recently. The US tends to resort to sanction policy in almost all inconvenient cases, which can be evidenced by numerous rounds of sanctions against such states as Russia, North Korea, Iran, and many others. Yet, for each country, a specific package of sanctions is designed, and the outcomes of those packages also tend to differ. The literature on the topic seems to be scarce, failing to examine the differences between sanctions against different countries and the way they change over time. The existing literature tends to focus on the peculiarities of each country separately. This research aims first at providing theoretical information about sanctions as a foreign policy tool of the US. Secondly, it analyzes the legal basis of sanctions. Thirdly, it intents to compare and contrast different sanction packages at different time periods and during the rule of different administrations and their outcomes and success. The First Chapter is going to be mainly theoretical, providing theoretical knowledge about geo-economics, aims, instruments and types of sanctions, their legal basis, their accordance with international law, and formal documents that establish them. Chapters 2,3 and 4 provide historical data about the imposition of sanctions in Russia, Iran, and North Korea, respectively. These chapters intent on tracking the way sanctions have changed over the years. Chapter 5 provides a comparison of these two sanctions packages of the US and their effectiveness.