Revamping Sanctions: How to Make Them Effective.

Sanctions have been used by the US since the 1960s, but a review of all US sanctions since 1970 shows that targeted countries altered their behavior in a way that the US hoped they would just 13 percent of the time. Sanctions are often easily avoided and can backfire or cause collateral damage, affecting innocent people in the targeted country and even the interests of the United States itself. However, successful sanctions tend to target countries with which the US has close economic ties, have a limited objective, and have multilateral support.