Societies Under Siege: Exploring How International Economic Sanctions (Do Not) Work [Hardcover]

This book is the first ever comparative study of how international economic sanctions work - or do not work - to achieve their political objectives.Today, international economic sanctions are imposed in response to virtually every serious international crisis, whether to promote regime change and democratisation, punish armed aggression, or check nuclear proliferation. But how exactly is the economic pain inflicted by sanctions supposed to translate into political gain? What are the mechanisms by which sanctions operate - or fail to operate? This is the first comparative study of this vital question.Drawing on Gramscian state theory,Societies Under Siegeprovides a novel analytical framework to study how sanctions are mediated through the domestic political economy and state-society relations of target states and filter through into political outcomes - whether those sought by the states imposing sanctions or, as frequently occurs, unintended and even highly perverse consequences. Detailed case studies of sanctions aimed at regime change in three pivotal cases - South Africa, Iraq and Myanmar - are used to explore how different types of sanctions function across time and space. These case studies draw on extensive fieldwork interviews, archival documents and leaked diplomatic cables to provide a unique insight into how undemocratic regimes targeted by sanctions survive or fall.Introduction1. A Political Theory of Economic Statecraft2. South Africa: Sanctioning Apartheid3. Myanmar: Sanctioning Military Rule4. Iraq: Sanctioning DictatorshipConclusionLee Jones is Senior Lecturer in International Politics at Queen Mary, University of London and Research Associate at the Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University. His research focuses on state-society relations, security and governance in developing countries, particularly Southeast Asia. Lee is author ofASEAN,Sovereignty and Intervention in Southeast Asia(Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) and, with ShahalSA