Introduction

International economic sanctions have recently enjoyed an upsurge of governmental and public attention. Over the last decade various governments, but especially those of the United States and other Western countries, have imposed or threatened economic sanctions in a wide variety of conflicts. In democratic societies there have been even more frequent demands from the public for the imposition of sanctions against foreign targets. International economic sanctions are deliberate government actions to inflict economic deprivation on a target state or society, through the limitation or cessation of customary economic relations. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book seeks to offer systematic comparative analysis of major individual cases of the imposition of international economic sanctions, in order to examine the utility of sanctions in each case and to draw general conclusions about the future prospects of economic sanctions as a policy instrument in international conflict.