ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that economic sanctions, as applied, have only exacerbated the causes of war in the Yugoslav context and have diminished the resources and avenues to respond in ways expected by sanctioning powers. The literature on economic sanctions identifies, on the basis of statistical analysis, certain economic and political conditions of target countries and of the sanctions' characteristics, which increase the probability of success. But there has been little attention paid to whether the kind of conflict, its causes, and the character of the political regime make a difference in the effectiveness of economic sanctions. The case of former Yugoslavia forces such consideration because it is a different kind of conflict than those usually addressed by this literature and the experience with economic sanctions. Economic sanctions worked against finding alternatives to war and nationalism in the difficult process of replacing the socialist system with globally open market economies and democratic regimes.
