The rise and success of economic sanctions

The use of economic sanctions continues to rise around the globe. 'While democracy and liberal institutions have led to the decline of war, they paradoxically have also triggered the rise of economic coercion as a new way to exercise power in international relations,' political scientist Dawid Walentek concludes in his PhD thesis on the rise and success of economic sanctions. It is often argued that the rise of democracy and liberal institutions, like the UN and NATO, and our societal objection to violence and war leads to cooperation and peace between states. Although war has indeed declined since the end of the Cold War, economic coercion has substantially increased at the same time. Dawid Walentek, PhD candidate in Political Economy, studied this rise of economic sanctions and argues that - paradoxically - democracy and liberal institutions created the breeding ground for the rise of economic sanctions. 'The exercise of power in international relations has been rechannelled from war into economic coercion,' Walentek concludes. 'Rather than disappearing, the exercise of power has changed.' - Sanctions seem more human and civilised ways of oppression .