Economic Casualties

In recent years economic sanctions have become one of the most frequently employed weapons in the U.S. foreign policy arsenal. They have been imposed in the name of advancing human rights, of fighting terrorism, and of preventing the transfer of weapons technology. Those are laudable goals, but the essays in this book lay out the evidence that sanctions are not effective instruments of foreign policy. Because they curb the freedom of Americans to trade and communicate with the rest of the world, sanctions have more disadvantages than benefits. Efforts to restrict the use of sanctions will soon be debated in Congress, and the results will affect every American consumer.

Contributors to this volume include former defense secretary Dick Cheney, former U.S. trade representative Clayton Yeutter, Prof. James B. Burnham of Duquesne University, Undersecretary for Export Administration William A. Reinsch, president and CEO of Novecon, Ltd. Richard Rahn, Ted Galen Carpenter of the Cato Institute,and Gary Hufbauer of the Institute for International Economics.

Solveig Singleton is the former director of information studies for the Cato Institute. She is currently a senior policy analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Project on Technology and Innovation. Daniel T. Griswold is associate director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies.

“A very important and timely book. It brilliantly exposes the dangers of using trade controls to achieve foreign‐​policy objectives. It is must reading for policy makers and concerned laymen.”
—Melvyn Krauss, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution

“At a moment in history when U.S. economic growth and prosperity are heavily dependent on expansion of international trade and investment, we have imposed one obstacle after another to the promotion and expansion of our international interests. This book convincingly reveals both the weakness of utilizing unilateral economic sanctions to achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives and the need to re‐​examine and reform this tool of foreign policy.”
—Sen. Richard Lugar (R‑Ind.), Chairman, Agriculture Committee

“Economic sanctions do have consequences, but usually not the ones they are intended to produce. This timely collection helps define the current public debate on whether there are benefits to sanctions that justify the costs.”
—Rep. Philip M. Crane (R‑Ill.), Chairman, Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee

“The message of Economic Casualties is clear and compelling; unilateral sanctions are truly self‐​inflicted wounds. They do to us in peacetime what our enemies try to do to us in wartime.”
—Murry Weidenbaum, Chairman, Center for the Study of America Business