'To Bless All Mankind' June 20, 2016 Issue

The key hope in sanctions

The Monitor’s Editorial Board

Adapted from an article published in The Christian Science Monitor, March 3, 2016.

The act of imposing a trade boycott or similar sanctions on a country for its misbehavior has long been used as a substitute for war. Sanctions, while hostile, can be a tool for peace. Yet they come with an article of faith: that the people in a targeted country also want better behavior from their leaders and will accept the hardship of sanctions as both necessary and an opportunity.

This faith in the power of sanctions to tap the inherent goodness of people—even their activism—is now being tested as never before.

On March 2, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to tighten sanctions against North Korea.

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