DOI: 10.7256/2454-0641.2018.4.27700

Abstract: This article examines the effectiveness of economic sanctions that are being applied today by states and their associations to realize a wide range of objectives. The authors, expanding the boundaries of the functional purpose of sanctions, propose the concept of differentiating goals, which, in their opinion, simplifies the assessment of the political effectiveness of this instrument of international influence. The authors distinguish between real and declared objectives of sanctions, substantiate the role of sanctions as a means of solving their own internal political tasks and communication tools within the international system, anticipating their results with a brief overview and characterization of stages in the studies of the effectiveness of sanctions. Solving the tasks, the authors turn to the content analysis of specialized scientific literature on relevant topics, classification method, highlighting historical periods and functional properties of economic sanctions, as well as to study specific situations that support the assumptions. The authors come to the conclusion that with the help of sanctions, states can pursue not only the goal to change the behavior of another state against which they are actually directed, but also other goals, often hidden behind official statements. Such goals may include elimination of domestic political problems and the transfer of signals to other participants of the international system, acting in a particular sanction case by a third party. They emphasize that the sanctions can serve the purposes connected both directly with the sanction and with the actual authorizing state, as well as with the goals concerning the international system as a whole, thereby marking new directions for research in the context of modern political science.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0641.2017.4.25003

Abstract: The subject of this study is effectiveness of traditional financial sanctions which, along with the arms embargo and travel ban, are considered the main type of targeted sanctions that, unlike the comprehensive sanctions, have a selective effect. One group of scientists views financial sanctions as a promising means of international influence which has already demonstrated its effectiveness, whereas the other one considers them a measure that has extremely scattered effect. In the context of this dispute, identification and systematization of the problems accompanying the application of financial sanctions should become an urgent task. To achieve this objective, the author refers to the content analysis of specialized scientific literature on the economic instruments of political influence, to comparing the consequences of comprehensive and targeted sanctions, as well as to a study of specific situations that confirm the basic assumptions. The author came to the conclusion that conventional financial sanctions (despite their widespread application in international practice) can not be regarded as an effective instrument of influence, especially given further multilateral globalization of the world. This conclusion is derived from the fact that they give rise to problems of implementation, evasion and side effect. That is why today the leading actors of world politics are trying to expand the list of financial sanctions including measures that require activity in cyberspace.