<p> There are studies that have touched on the question of whether sanctions are effective or not. Some argue that sanctions are effective in achieving their goals, while others argue that they are ineffective. Some adopt the opinion that sanctions are effective with other foreign policy tools in specific conditions conducted with them. But there are not many who write about the adverse effects of sanctions on the target country's internal politics after their failure to achieve their goals as a separate subject. </p><p> This study highlights the counterproductivity of sanctions imposed on the authoritarian regimes that aim to pressure them into changing their policies or bring them down. The paper goes beyond the ineffectiveness of sanctions to argue that sanctions that target the authoritarian regimes help to strengthen the position of the authoritarian leaders instead of bringing political change. That happens in two different ways: If the sanctions are smart they either provoke the masses or unite them, which in turn shifts the public opinion in favor of the target regime or the target regime led by its charismatic leader will manipulate and exaggerate their effects for the purposes of furthering his power. If sanctions are comprehensive, however, they cause economic crisis and devastation of socioeconomic structures that hit the whole society and ensure the regime's continuity by limiting the capacity of the public to organize. In both situations the imposition of the sanctions would strengthen the sanctioned authoritarian regime. In this study, Libya and Eritrea were selected to examine the hypothesis on smart sanctions on the authoritarian regime while Iraq was chosen to examine the hypothesis on comprehensive sanctions.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:1572923 |
| Date | 05 February 2015 |
| Creators | Elakder, Abdurraouf |
| Publisher | Western Illinois University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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