ABSTRACT
Economic sanctions have many names: blockades, boycotts, embargoes, sometimes even described as quarantine or economic coercion. These concepts are almost synonymous. Under such headings the issue of sanctions was of concern throughout the twentieth century. In the early years “tariff wars” were on the agenda (Nicholson 1967). The continental blockade of the Napoleonic wars was on the mind of decision-makers. World War I saw the application of sanctions against the allied countries of the continent. Following the war debates on sanctions have been intense at times. In retrospect, it appears to be a matter of thirty-year intervals. Sanction policy was a major issue of discussion in the 1930s. In the 1960s a new intensive debate emerged and in the 1990s there was a repeated interest in sanctions issues. These three big debates on the topic of the uses and misuses of sanctions are interesting in themselves as a part of the ongoing evolution of peace thinking. They also show important shifts in the foci of concern, changes in related studies, and the creation of new political practices. Let me quickly review the debates and then make some comparisons, which will help to put the present debate in perspective.
