TY - BOOK
T1 - Coercive Sanctions and International Conflicts
T2 - A Sociological Theory
AU - Jaeger, Mark Daniel
PY - 2018/5/16
Y1 - 2018/5/16
N2 - Perhaps the most common question raised in the literature on coercive international sanctions is: "Do sanctions work?" Unsurprisingly, the answer to such a sweeping question remains inconclusive. However, even the widely presumed logic of coercive sanctions - that economic impact translates into effective political pressure - is not the primary driver of confl ict developments. Furthermore, existing rationalist-economistic approaches neglect one of the most striking differences seen across sanctions confl icts: the occurrence of positive sanctions or their combination with negative sanctions, implicitly taking them as logically indifferent. Instead of asking whether sanctions work, this book addresses a more basic question: How do coercive international sanctions work, and more substantially, what are the social conditions within sanctions confl icts that are conducive to either cooperation or non-cooperation? Arguing that coercive sanctions and international confl icts are relational, socially constructed facts, the author explores the (de-)escalation of sanctions confl icts from a sociological perspective. Whether sanctions are conducive to either cooperation or non-cooperation depends on the one hand on the meaning they acquire for opponents as inducing decisions upon mutual confl ict. On the other hand, negative sanctions, positive sanctions or their combination each contribute differently to the way in which opponents perceive confl ict, and to its potential transformation. Thus, it is premature to 'predict' the political effectiveness of sanctions simply based on economic impact. The book presents analyses of the sanctions confl icts between China and Taiwan and over Iran's nuclear program, illustrating how negative sanctions, positive sanctions and their combination made a distinct contribution to conflict development and prospects for cooperation. It will be of great interest to researchers, postgraduates and academics in the fi elds of international relations, sanctions, international security and international political sociology.
AB - Perhaps the most common question raised in the literature on coercive international sanctions is: "Do sanctions work?" Unsurprisingly, the answer to such a sweeping question remains inconclusive. However, even the widely presumed logic of coercive sanctions - that economic impact translates into effective political pressure - is not the primary driver of confl ict developments. Furthermore, existing rationalist-economistic approaches neglect one of the most striking differences seen across sanctions confl icts: the occurrence of positive sanctions or their combination with negative sanctions, implicitly taking them as logically indifferent. Instead of asking whether sanctions work, this book addresses a more basic question: How do coercive international sanctions work, and more substantially, what are the social conditions within sanctions confl icts that are conducive to either cooperation or non-cooperation? Arguing that coercive sanctions and international confl icts are relational, socially constructed facts, the author explores the (de-)escalation of sanctions confl icts from a sociological perspective. Whether sanctions are conducive to either cooperation or non-cooperation depends on the one hand on the meaning they acquire for opponents as inducing decisions upon mutual confl ict. On the other hand, negative sanctions, positive sanctions or their combination each contribute differently to the way in which opponents perceive confl ict, and to its potential transformation. Thus, it is premature to 'predict' the political effectiveness of sanctions simply based on economic impact. The book presents analyses of the sanctions confl icts between China and Taiwan and over Iran's nuclear program, illustrating how negative sanctions, positive sanctions and their combination made a distinct contribution to conflict development and prospects for cooperation. It will be of great interest to researchers, postgraduates and academics in the fi elds of international relations, sanctions, international security and international political sociology.
U2 - 10.4324/9781315522432
DO - 10.4324/9781315522432
M3 - Book
SN - 9781138697171
T3 - New International Relations
BT - Coercive Sanctions and International Conflicts
PB - Routledge
CY - London; New York
ER -