Link to article: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/mar/01/sanctions-are-neither-new-nor-guaranteed-to-be-effective-just-look-at-cuba
It has been 60 years since the United States first imposed economic sanctions on Cuba and the country has continued under a socialist regime the entirety of that time period. US sanctions have had a variety of effects on the countries being sanctioned. In Cuba, it is estimated that the economy has lost around 130 billion dollars over the past 60 years yet all they have accomplished in terms of reparation of the government and the country is provide a scapegoat for the regime to blame for the poor conditions and lack of economic success. In Venezuela, sanctions have created economic suffering, currency collapse, and mass migration out of the country but yet no regime change either. In Iran, sanctions for over 40 years have crippled the economy and despite a complicated nuclear programme deal, Iran shows no indication of talks until sanctions are dropped. Lastly, North Korea has faced a crumbling economy compared to their southern counterpart yet again shown no sign of demilitarization and halting their nuclear programme. Conversely, in South Africa sanctions were effective and stopped the apartheid but also other facors contributed to this. All of this can either support or disprove the US response to the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
This article takes a rather opinionated stance towards the US sanctions on Russia using the decades of US sanctions on Cuba as an example of the possibility of these sanctions being ineffective. However, in closing it states that the sanctions effectiveness will depend on how many allies Puntin keeps throughout this crisis, so, I think as most of the world is united together behind Ukraine, these sanctions will prove to be much more effective against Russia than those in Cuba. In the current age, the Russian invasion has been widely broadcasted globally and almost all countries have followed the United States in taking measures to halt Russian advance. Despite the continued determination of Putin on the battlefield, now his back is against the wall, the sanctions are crippling the economy, and he lacks support from not only global powers but his own people. This combination will hopefully increase the effectiveness of the sanctions and help prevent further militarial involvement.
Over 1,400 cases worldwide of threatened or real sanctions have occured since World War II. And despite the previously mentioned ineffective cases of US sanctions, they have become a major tactic to achieve cooperation and peace without militarial involvement. However, in the cases of Cuba and Venezuela, they haven’t been shown to affect socialist regimes leaving the possibility of Russia continuing to attack Ukraine while people suffer. The US decision to be uninvolved militarily comes from maintaining offshore balancing. As Russia is halfway around the world, the US aims to let European regional powers take control of the issue while helping but not exerting grave amounts of power in a region that is locationally unimportant. That being said, the geopolitical location of Ukraine has been of peak interest to the United States, and Russia, because of proximity to NATO member states and oil production, leading to extremely harsh sanctions.