CONCLUSION

V. CONCLUSION

1. The end of the Cold War has introduced an era of regional instability where world peace and security will be threatened by many events besides armed attacks by one State against another.

2. As the only remaining superpower, the United States must lead international efforts to develop and enforce new collective rules of responsible conduct that foster peace and security.

3. The United States will continue in the foreseeable future to rely on economic sanctions as the preferred means of coercing nations to comply with such rules of conduct.

4. Economic sanctions can be a useful tool to coerce such compliance if they are multilaterally administered and enforced in an effective manner from the start, not deemed the sole exclusive means of redress, and not retained for unduly long periods of time.

5. Unenforced sanctions may be politically expedient in the short term but they usually fail to coerce the target nation into compliance, they postpone adoption of other measures better suited to resolve the crisis and yet, still can have serious adverse impact on innocent parties.

6. Economic sanctions currently lie in a twilight zone between war and peace that is inadequately defined and regulated under international and U.S. laws. This lack of a permanent legal framework has contributed to their overall low level of success in the past.

7. Just as it was in the national interest of the British during the 19th century to establish new rules of international law, it is now in the U.S. national interest to lead in the adoption of new international rules for imposing economic sanctions and the manner in which they should be administered.

8. The United States should encourage the new U.N. Secretary General to give priority to the development and codification of such rules by treaty or international agreement as well as to recast the role of regional organizations in imposing and enforcing economic sanctions to provide prompt effective local solutions to local crises.

9. The United States should not only assume the lead in this international effort but should also set the example for member nations to reform their domestic laws by addressing all issues relating to imposition and enforcement of economic sanctions in comprehensive new U.S. legislation.

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Last Update: October1, 2002