Evaluating Economic Sanctions

Do economic sanctions "work"? Although the traditional answer to this question has been negative, Robert A. Pape contends that the past decade has witnessed "increased optimism about the utility of economic sanctions" by international relations scholars.' In questioning this alleged optimism, he raises issues concerning the concept of economic sanctions, the standards by which their success should be judged, the causal logic of "the theory of economic sanctions," and reassessment of the most often used economic sanctions database.2 These topics will be discussed in turn.