How Can We Stop Bankrupt Sanctions Policies?

There is a need for an organized effort to counter the interest groups that reliably support broad sanctions.

Barbara Slavin reviews the record of broad sanctions and marvels that such failed policies continue:

So why do sanctions keep being imposed? As virtue signaling? As a substitute for war? To placate domestic political constituencies? All of the above?

There are many reasons, but the results do not seem to justify the means. Will politicians ever acknowledge the facts and change course?

Unfortunately, we know that the answer to the last question is almost certainly no. Broad sanctions have proven to be all but useless as a policy tool, but politically they are very convenient for politicians and policymakers that want to “act” but don’t want the baggage that comes from more costly interventions. Come to think of it, our political leaders rarely acknowledge any policy failure even when it is staring them in the face, so they are even less inclined to acknowledge failure in these cases when there are vocal interest groups committed to keeping sanctions in place no matter what.

It is absurd, but one reason why it is politically safer to support broad sanctions than it is to oppose them is that these interest groups are prepared to punish politicians that don’t fall in line and there are really no competing groups in a position to challenge them.