EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Sanctions enforced by the military in the absence of hostilities fall in a "twilight zone" between war and peace not clearly defined or regulated by international or U.S. law. Accordingly, sanctions are often initially imposed for the sake of short-term political expediency without giving much thought to objectives, or how to achieve these effectively with the minimum adverse impact on the United States, third nations, or innocent parties within the sanctioned nations.

Without rigorous international enforcement, economic sanctions seldom achieve the objectives for which they were imposed, and the longer they remain in effect, the more likely they are to have considerable unintended adverse impacts. Although the majority of economic sanctions have not achieved their primary objectives, they have become a preferred instrument of the United States in addressing a widening range of international problems, some of which may not be susceptible of resolution by sanctions alone.

This paper provides a general background on the issues discussed; a chronological analysis of the sanctions imposed against Iraq, Haiti, and the former Yugoslavia and of their respective military enforcement (mostly by maritime forces); and proposed measures to render future sanctions more effective at the international and national levels. It recommends that the United States assume the international lead in urging the United Nations to sponsor a conference to establish permanent rules clarifying the situations (besides armed attack by one state against another) where economic sanctions enforced by the military may be justified; the manner in which these sanctions should be imposed, administered, and enforced; strengthening the role of regional organizations in resolving situations arising in their respective regions without U.N. intervention; and drafting "model" legislation for enactment by U.N. members to achieve uniform legal capacity to participate in multilateral sanctions.

At the national level, it is recommended that the United States overhaul the array of fragmented and overlapping statutory provisions relating to economic sanctions and to their enforcement by the military, and in their stead, enact comprehensive new legislation exclusively designed to regulate all aspects of U.S. involvement in multilateral and unilateral economic sanctions.

Particular issues to be addressed in such legislation are also suggested, such as permanently authorizing the President in peacetime to deploy U.S. military forces abroad for the limited purpose of enforcing multilateral sanctions imposed by the Council or a regional organization; requiring the President to consider the feasibility and potential adverse impact of severe sanctions within and outside the United States before unilaterally imposing these; and terminating such unilateral sanctions after 1 year, unless they are adopted during that period by the Council, a regional organization, or a coalition of other nations, or they are extended by the U.S. Congress.

Although implementation of these measures would not assure the success of all future sanctions, they would introduce discipline and accountability, which is lacking under the current ad hoc political process, where decision precedes analysis. The paper concludes that sanctions can be a useful tool, provided they are not viewed as the exclusive solution to all international problems and they are not allowed to remain in effect long after they have outlived their usefulness.

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Last Update: October1, 2002