Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

War between states is an extremely costly action to all involved. Though in some cases war may be an effective means to a particular end, most states will go out of their way to avoid such action if it is possible. Historically speaking, sanctions, usually used as alternatives to war, serve as ineffective tools in effecting the actions of other states. However, states still threaten and use sanctions as means of coercion in their interstate relations. I believe that the reason for continued use of sanctions is that they are frequently less costly than war and the message they send can be seen globally. I argue that sanctions are not necessarily ineffective tools of force between states. As is true in all successful interstate games, cooperation is the key to victorious sanction usage. We can see other examples of this in recent attempts to curtail terrorist activity. Therefore, I believe that sanctions have been generally ineffective in the past due to lack of multilateral agreements, but this trend does not have to continue in the future if states work to employ new strategies in the instillation of sanctions. The use of sanctions has become increasingly common over time, especially as the threat of war has become progr