The political economy of US sanctions against India's nuclear tests in 1998

Abstract

Economic sanctions are an important tool in the foreign policy toolkit of a nation.

Conventional wisdom dictates that sanctions do not work. This is driven by impression that

countries that sanction other countries construe it as a failure if the goals are not fulfilled or

they are not successful in changing the behaviour of the countries against whom they have

imposed sanctions. There is very little debate about costs. Every foreign policy alternative

entails a cost whether it is diplomatic, military force or a combination of several elements of

statecraft. David Baldwin is a revisionist scholar when it comes to economic sanctions. This

dissertation examines how sanctions should be evaluated in terms of costs incurred by the

state imposing them on another state. The case study is of US sanctions against India in

1998. I argue that the sanctions were a success when evaluated as a cost incurred by the US.

Low cost means low benefit. The essay concludes by stating that it is not accomplishment of

goals alone that determines the success or failure of sanctions. Costs play an important part.

Keywords. Economic sanctions, cost, nuclear test, success, failure, India, Pakistan