Economic sanctions

Economic sanctions are penalties applied by one or more countries against a target country, group, or individual to force a change in political or economic behavior. Under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the United Nations Security Council is the only legal body in the world authorized by international law to impose multilateral economic sanctions. This stands in marked contrast to the neo-liberal Rules Based Order foreign policy of the United States, in which the US State Dept threatens and blackmails third party countries with economic sanctions who do not go along with US unilateral sanction regimes against its targeted adversaries.

Economic sanctions stand in contrast to a free market where prices, production, and distribution of goods are determined by voluntary exchange between buyers and sellers with little or no government control. Sanctions rely on heavy state control, force, coercive trade blocks, embargoes, asset freezes, and bans on specific financial transactions.. Free markets rely on minimal intervention and open commerce. Sanctions aim to disrupt economic activity for political goals. Free markets aim to foster economic activity through natural supply and demand. Sanctions create artificial barriers and prohibitions. Free markets remove barriers to allow smooth exchange.

During the Cold War, the "Free World" promoted a free market whereas the "Communist bloc" relied heavily on government control and sanctions to deny access to their markets and was a defining ideological division. In the post-Cold War era and Unipolar moment, the global situation has substantially reversed itself.