Sanctions

I’m sorry North Korea or Iran or Pago-Pago or the Isle of Cucamonga, but in our eyes you have been bad and must be punished. As diplomacy results to your naughtiness, we will apply sanctions on you. So there, take that!

What the heck is this sanction stuff? Seems like everyone has sanctions on them and still they seem to get along. What are these sanctions and why aren’t they changing bad behavior?

sanc·tion: a threatened penalty for disobeying a law or rule.

Synonyms: penalty, punishment, deterrent, punitive action, discipline, restriction, embargo, ban, prohibition, boycott.

• Measures taken by a nation to coerce another to conform to an international agreement or norms of conduct, typically in the form of restrictions on trade or on participation in official sporting events.

 • To enforce obedience to any rule of conduct decided by another.

Antonyms: prohibit, impose a sanction or penalty on.

Synonyms: punish, discipline.

Economic sanctions are commercial and financial penalties applied by one or more countries against a targeted country, group, or individual. Economic sanctions may include various forms of trade barriers, tariffs, and restrictions on financial transactions. An embargo is similar, but usually implies a more severe sanction. Economic sanctions are not necessarily imposed because of economic circumstances—they may also be imposed for a variety of political, military, and social issues. Economic sanctions can be used for achieving domestic and international purposes.

An embargo (from the Spanish embargo, meaning hindrance, obstruction, etc. in a general sense, a trading ban in trade terminology and literally “distrait” in juridical parlance) is the partial or complete prohibition of commerce and trade with a particular country or a group of countries. Embargoes are considered strong diplomatic measures imposed in an effort, by the imposing country, to elicit a given national-interest result from the country on which it is imposed. Embargoes are generally considered legal barriers to trade, not to be confused with blockades, which are often considered to be acts of war.

Embargoes can mean limiting or banning export or import, creating quotas for quantity, imposing special tolls, taxes, banning freight or transport vehicles, freezing or seizing freights, assets, bank accounts, limiting the transport of particular technologies or products (high-tech).

In response to embargoes, an independent economy or autarky often develops in an area subjected to heavy embargo. Effectiveness of embargoes is thus in proportion to the extent and degree of international participation.

International sanctions are actions taken by countries against others for political reasons, either unilaterally or multilaterally.

There are several types of sanctions.

• Diplomatic sanctions – the reduction or removal of diplomatic ties, such as embassies.

• Economic sanctions – typically a ban on trade, possibly limited to certain sectors such as armaments, or with certain exceptions (such as food and medicine) Economic sanctions are distinguished from trade sanctions, which are applied for purely economic reasons, and typically take the form of tariffs or similar measures, rather than bans on trade.

• Military sanctions – military intervention

• Sport sanctions – preventing one country’s people and teams from competing in international events.

• Sanctions on Environment – since the declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, international environmental protection efforts have been increased gradually.

An auto-antonym or autantonym, also called a contronym or contranym, is a word with multiple meanings (senses) of which one is the reverse of another.  This phenomenon is called enantiosemy, enantionymy or antilogy (enantio- means “opposite”). An enantiosemic term is necessarily polysemic.

Antonyms: reward

Synonyms: authorization, consent, leave, permission, authority, warrant, license, dispensation, assent, acquiescence, agreement, approval, approbation, endorsement, accreditation, ratification, validation, blessing, imprimatur, OK, green light

Antonyms: prohibition official permission or approval for an action.

• Official confirmation or ratification of a law.

• A law or decree, especially an ecclesiastical decree.

Verb: sanction; 3rd person present: sanctions; past tense: sanctioned; past participle: sanctioned; gerund or present participle: sanctioning

Give official permission or approval for (an action).

Synonyms: authorize, permit, allow, warrant, accredit, license, endorse, approve, accept, back, support.

A pragmatic sanction is a sovereign’s solemn decree on a matter of primary importance and has the force of fundamental law. In the late history of the Holy Roman Empire it referred more specifically to an edict issued by the Emperor. Pragmatic sanctions tend to be issued at times in which the theoretically ideal situation is untenable, and a change of the rules is called for.

When used as a proper noun, and the year is not mentioned, it usually refers to the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, a legal mechanism designed to ensure that the Austrian throne and Habsburg lands would be inherited by Emperor Charles VI’s daughter, Maria Theresa.

• The Pragmatic Sanction of Justinian I, promulgated in August 554, on the reorganization of Italy following the Gothic War.

• The ‘so-called’ Pragmatic Sanction of Louis IX, purporting to have been issued in March 1269, regarding various clerical reforms, was a forgery fabricated in the 15th century.

• The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, issued on July 7, 1438 by King Charles VII of France, limited the authority of the pope over the Church within France.

• The German Pragmatic Sanction of 1439, issued by German ruling princes March 26, 1439, accepted some of the decrees of the Council of Basel with modifications. It has been argued that the name Pragmatic Sanction should not be applied to this document because a prince’s subordinate without the emperor’s endorsement issued it.

• The Pragmatic Sanction of 1549, issued by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, established the Seventeen Provinces as an entity.

• The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 issued by Emperor Charles VI on April 19, 1713, by which the Habsburg hereditary possessions (Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, and various other smaller lands) were allowed to pass to a woman (specifically Maria Theresa) if Charles VI had no male heirs.

• The Croatian Pragmatic Sanction of 1712, passed by the Diet of the Habsburg Kingdom of Croatia and predating the Austrian decree, allowing the Croatian throne to pass to the female line of the House of Habsburg.

• The Pragmatic Sanction of 1723 passed by the Hungarian Parliament, accepting female inheritance in the Kingdom of Hungary. Charles VI had permitted Hungary to revert to elective monarchy should he die without a male heir; this instrument signaled the Hungarian parliament's acceptance of his choice of successor.

• The Pragmatic Sanction of Naples, issued October 6, 1759, by King Charles III of Spain, governed the succession to the thrones of Naples, Sicily, and Spain, and forbade the union of Spain and the Two Sicilies.

• The Spanish Pragmatic Sanction of 1830, issued March 29, 1830 by King Ferdinand VII of Spain, ratified a Decree of 1789 by Charles IV of Spain, which had replaced the semi-Salic system established by Philip V with the male-preference primogeniture system that had historically characterized the Castilian monarchy (upon which the Spanish monarchy draws its traditions), as exemplified by the inheritance by queens regnant Urraca, Isabella I, and Joanna.

With all that said, which kind of ‘sanctions’ are we giving to those countries that done wrong to the international community? Well after several minutes of investigation it is hard to tell what these sanctions are. I hear about limiting coal imports or expelling diplomats or just shaking our fingers while playing tit-for-tat again the wrong doers. Maybe these so-called sanctions are that shoelaces will not be sold with shoes or only one type of mustard can be purchased or all running jackets come with no zippers. Meanwhile it seems our nasty friends are still going strong shrugging off our imperial nonsense’s of punishment (or perhaps permission).

Well it makes a good news story of democracy at work. I guess it beats an invasion?