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Introduction From 1993 to 1996, sixty-one U.S. laws and executive actions were enacted authorizing unilateral economic sanctions for foreign-policy purposes. These sanctions were imposed on thirty-five countries. In 1997, seventy-five countries were affected by U.S. imposed sanctions affecting not only the targeted country but U.S. commerce and consumers. Unilateral sanctions can be defined as the applications of sanctions imposed by one country on another, for example U.S. trade with Cuba. Multilateral sanctions are those imposed upon a target country by the U.S. and its allies. “An economic sanction is defined as a restriction on normal commercial relations with the targeted country. This basically involves restrictions on trade, investment and other cross-border economic activities.” (Preeg) The effectiveness of unilateral sanctions and economic incentives, imposed or offered, by the U.S. on foreign governments to persuade the target government to follow western cultural norms is a highly debated topic. The conventional theory about how sanctions are suppose to work assumes that political change is directly proportional to economic hardship. The greater the pain caused by sanctions the higher the probability of political compliance. (Preeg) Economic Hardship vs. Political Change Religious persecution, authoritarian governments that are predisposed to violence and human rights are the root cause for sanctions. They are designed to limit the availability of goods, foods, weapons and financial resources in the hopes that the economic hardship will be enough to persuade either a change of heart in the political powers, or bring an uprising in the masses that will allow for political reform. “The conventional theory about how sanctions are suppose to work assumes that political change is directly proportional to economic hardship, the higher the probability of political compliance.” (Lopez) However, sanctions imposed upon a country, like Cuba, can prove to have a dramatic negative effect on the citizens of the country, without ever persuading change in political power and policy.
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