Horror...Trump Could Lift Sanctions on Russia

When it was reported that Trump "might" lift sanctions on Russia, you would have thought that Lindsey Graham, John McCain, much of Congress, and most of the media had been told they only had weeks to live.  Actually, what Trump said is "If you get along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody’s doing some really great things?".

Putting that aside, here's the truth about sanctions: They don't work!

In a book titled "Economic Sanctions Reconsidered", three researchers looked at 200 sanction sets from 1914 to 2009 between various countries.  Their research found that just 13 of those 200 sanction sets "really" worked.  Of the thirteen, 3 were threatened and were never imposed.  7 lasted one year or less.  Of the remaining three, one lasted for two years; and the remaining 2 only achieved results after four years.  Simply speaking, the longer that sanctions are in place, the odds of them working are greatly reduced.  Of course, that's assuming that they would work at all.

Something to think about as we now enter the third year of sanctions against Russia.  Maybe Trump can find a better "deal" to get Russia to budge on Crimea and Ukraine?

References:

Trump open to removing Russia sanctions: http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/314323-trump-open-to-removing-russia-sanctions

13 times that economic sanctions really worked: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/04/28/13-times-that-economic-sanctions-really-worked/?utm_term=.38b745a101cc

January 10, 2017: McCain, Graham to unveil bipartisan Russia sanctions bill - POLITICO: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/john-mccain-lindsey-graham-no-russia-sanctions-bill-233395