Economic sanctions are a coercive diplomacy tool often used by sender states to elicit behavioral change in the target state. Prior research focused on the domestic elements of the target state,...Show moreEconomic sanctions are a coercive diplomacy tool often used by sender states to elicit behavioral change in the target state. Prior research focused on the domestic elements of the target state, thus this research tests the cooperative theory in which the focus is on the international behavior of the target state when assessing the effectiveness of economic sanctions. The research question driving this thesis is: are economic sanctions more effective in a non-cooperative authoritarian state or a cooperative authoritarian state? The two case studies are China (cooperative authoritarian state) and Iran (non-cooperative authoritarian state). Through five mechanisms, budget of the target state, opposition within the target state, type of sanction, commitment of the sender state, and dependence of the target state on the international community, the effectiveness of the sanctions is analyzed. Noticeably there is a stronger link between effective sanctions and the cooperative authoritarian state (China) in comparison with the non-cooperative authoritarian state (Iran), the international mechanisms mostly drive the effectiveness of the sanctions in the cooperative authoritarian state, and neo-realism is a very noticeable factor in utilizing economic sanctions.Show less
