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Sanctions: A futile exercise or political power tool? According to Leyton–Brown in World Politics economic sanctions, seeing that this is the form it usually takes on, are “deliberate government actions to inflict economic deprivation on a target state or society, through the limitation or cessation of customary economic relations”. Economic sanctions are an increasingly popular way of economic statecraft available to governments. It is an alternative to applying military force; it is enacted to express outrage and to change the behaviour of the target. According to Hufbauer et al there have been 120 episodes of foreign policy sanctions since World War I, 104 of which were enacted since World War II. Despite their frequent use, most efforts to apply economic sanctions have failed. This is why many have questioned their effectiveness. Why is failure so prevalent? And why have economic sanctions become the weapon of choice in diplomatic confrontations in the wake of the Cold War? I will look at this, based on the use of sanctions against South Africa in the apartheid years. The usefulness of economic sanctions as instruments of foreign policy enjoys at best a chequered history. In the case of South Africa, it illustrates t