ABSTRACT
Sanctions have been an integral instrument of Group of Eight (G8) governance since the very start. The G8 was first created in 1975 to defend against and defeat the oil embargo imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) on democratic America, the Netherlands and Israel in October 1973. Inspired by the Indian nuclear explosion in May 1974, the G7 (as it was then) swiftly initiated its own sanctions, acting against nuclear proliferation through the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) formed at the time of the first summit in 1975. At the 1976 summit, most members agreed to withhold financial support desperately needed by democratic member Italy if it allowed the Communist Party members to join its governing coalition. All agreed to monitor and if necessary restrict their banks’ lending to the Soviet Union so they would not be collectively overexposed. In 1978 members threatened sanctions to stop skyjacking. After the G8’s successful response to the terrorist fuelled second oil shock in 1979 the G8 created the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). In the 1980s, it mounted a failed attempt to stop a Soviet gas pipeline to Western Europe in 1982, and action against Libya as a state supporter of terrorism in 1986 (Putnam and Bayne 1984, 1987). The post–Cold War, globalizing era brought G8 sanctions against apartheid South Africa in 1987, China over the Tiananmen massacre in 1989, financial crime in 1989, the former Yugoslavia, Indonesia in 1997 and terrorist finance since 2001. Today’s G8 continues to ask how much and how to use sanctions against a now nuclear North Korea, a rapidly nuclearizing Iran, and authoritarian Sudan and Zimbabwe to counter and control the insecurity they create.
