The Relationship Between a State’s Domestic Factors and Its Implementation of Economic Sanctions: A Study of the Obama Administration’s Economic Sanctions On Iran, 2009-2012

Abstract

Coercive diplomacy is one of the foreign policy strategies used by states to solve problems peacefully. Negative economic sanctions are a policy within coercive diplomacy that has been newly used by states to impair the adversary’s economy. There are many external and internal factors that affect and cause the use of economic sanctions. This Senior Study investigates the domestic factors that led the Obama Administration to initiate economic sanctions against Iran. Two hypotheses are posed: first, high unemployment rates lead to economic sanction implementation; second, low job approval rates lead to the implementation of economic sanctions. These two hypotheses are explored through studying the initiation of economic sanctions by the Obama Administration on the Iranian regime in two time frames: between 2009 and 2010, and between November 2011 and November 2012. The two time frames enriched analysis and removed the proximity of elections as a factor affecting economic sanction implementation. During both times, economic sanctions, unemployment rates and job approval rates were recorded. Analysis of presented information shows that sanctions were implemented in both time frames. In addition, in both times, unemployment rates were high which affected negatively job approval rates that were recorded to be low. Therefore, the Obama Administration’s position internally was suffering and was losing the public’s support. Hence, the Obama Administration initiated economic sanctions not just to accomplish foreign interests, but also to reach the domestic goal of restoring the public’s approval. These results prove a relationship between domestic factors and the formation of foreign policies.