Sanctions are one of the key tools countries use to influence the behavior of other states, organizations, or individuals without resorting to military force. They involve restricting normal economic or financial relations in order to exert pressure or signal disapproval. While open economic relations are generally beneficial, governments sometimes impose sanctions in response to violations of international norms or threats to security.
Sanctions can serve different purposes: to deter an action before it occurs, to coerce a change in behavior once it has occurred, or simply to signal disassociation and uphold international standards. Their effectiveness can take different forms. In some cases, the mere threat of sanctions may be enough to prevent an action — a deterrent effect. In other cases, sanctions may succeed in altering behavior after being imposed—an enforcement effect.
However, such clear outcomes are relatively rare. Sanctions may not impose sufficient costs, or they may do so too slowly. Sometimes they harm the sender as well, and the target may gamble that political or economic pressure will wane over time. Still, even when sanctions do not change behavior, they can serve important symbolic functions, reinforcing norms and sending signals both internationally and domestically.
This complexity makes binary questions like “Do sanctions work?” less useful. A more meaningful approach is to ask how sanctions work, under what conditions they are effective, and what kinds of effects—direct or indirect—they produce. Understanding how sanctions work means looking at who imposes them, how they are designed, and what mechanisms exist to enforce or evade them.