What are sanctions good for? International experiences from before 2022

The Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT) held a roundtable discussion on the 9th of November 2022 entitled „What are sanctions good for? International experiences from before 2022”. Invited guests were Miklós Sárközy, associate professor of Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Béla Soltész, senior research fellow of the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Anton Bendarzsevszkij, operations director of Oeconomus Foundation of Economic Research. The conference was moderated by Péter Stepper, senior research fellow of the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Béla Soltész gave an extensive summary of the history of sanctions imposed on the Caribbean region from the 1950’s to recent days, elaborating the case of Cuba. He emphasized that sanctions on Cuba have not been lifted even after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. Miklós Sárközy summarized the history of sanctions in Iran which started in the early 1980’s and still lasts today. He focused on the change of relations between Iran and western powers and the importance of the nuclear deal made with Iran from an economic policy perspective. Anton Bendarzsevszkij offered a wide range overview of sanctions imposed on Russia in the past and in these days, he highlighted that even though sanctions always caused economic damages, they could not achieve change in the political sytem.

The discussion also elaborated on the resistivity of different countries against sanctions. Béla Soltész emphasized the significance of trade of hydrocarbons through the example of Venezuela. Miklós Sárközy highlighted the importance of Iran’s geopolitical location. Finally Anton Bendarzsevszkij pointed out that Russia possesses great amount of resources and the recently imposed sanctions will not cause economic collapse.

Photos by: Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT)