African Focus of The Global Sanctions Policy

Africa remains the largest object of global sanctions policy, which is due to political instability and conflicts, but also to the great geopolitical and geo-economic significance of this continent for the former metropolises and other Western countries. In accordance with the historical and political context of Africa’s development and the available data we distinguish three stages of the sanctions policy towards this macroregion: The Cold War, the Post-Soviet and the Current stage. The first stage is characterized by the low efficiency and inexpediency of imposing sanctions. With the collapse of the African front of the Cold War in the late 1980’s the second stage of the sanctions policy begun. It was marked with the large-scale sanction pressure from the West aimed at supporting democratic institutions and the “vanishing” of pro-Soviet regimes. This massive intervention led to a serious destabilization of Africa which the international community was unable to control. The current stage was marked by the beginning of the International Criminal Court work in 2002, which got the opportunity to prosecute high-ranking officials, including the presidents of certain countries. In response to the close attention and increased pressure from the international community, Africa saw the popularization of the idea of creating alternative instruments for regulating relations within the macroregion. This reaction could be motivated by the possibly subjective attitudes of the African elites, but also by the low efficiency of sanctions. The data suggests that sanctions rarely achieve official goals and have a negative impact on ordinary citizens

Democracy · Development economics · Economic sanctions · Economics · Foreign policy · Geography · Geopolitics · International community · International relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sanctions · Sociology · Economic Sanctions and International Relations · Law