Leyton-Brown: What role will sanctions by Canada, the United States, and the European Union play in the development of the political crisis in Ukraine?

By: /
18 March, 2014
By: David Leyton-Brown
Professor of Political Science, York University

It depends on what the sanctions are intended to accomplish, and what sanctions are applied. Sanctions are effective at communicating to your own citizens the seriousness of your resolve, but they are not likely to be effective in compelling an opponent country, especially a large, powerful, and self-sufficient one, to relinquish something that matters much more to it than your sanctions.

Before you click away, we’d like to ask you for a favour … 

 

Journalism in Canada has suffered a devastating decline over the last two decades. Dozens of newspapers and outlets have shuttered. Remaining newsrooms are smaller. Nowhere is this erosion more acute than in the coverage of foreign policy and international news. It’s expensive, and Canadians, oceans away from most international upheavals, pay the outside world comparatively little attention.

At Open Canada, we believe this must change. If anything, the pandemic has taught us we can’t afford to ignore the changing world. What’s more, we believe, most Canadians don’t want to. Many of us, after all, come from somewhere else and have connections that reach around the world.

Our mission is to build a conversation that involves everyone — not just politicians, academics and policy makers. We need your help to do so. Your support helps us find stories and pay writers to tell them. It helps us grow that conversation. It helps us encourage more Canadians to play an active role in shaping our country’s place in the world.

Become a Supporter