How Sanctions Affect Iran’s Development

In the era of globalization, sanction, blockade and similar tools may not be as effective and meaningful as they used to be a few decades ago. There was a time when the state could manipulate all economic activities inside its territory and a single decision could bring under domination financial institutes or a major part of trade exchanges. Capital, production and trade are not in the hands of governments these days however so actualizing blockades, exerting pressure and freezing economic transactions are not as effective as before. Implementation of all-effective sanctions is more like a dream in today’s world.

Although sanctions cannot serve the interests of their enforcers through and through, that doesn’t mean they are devoid of any impact. Governments which are a part of the global system of capitalism are linked to the core circles of social, political and financial power. Their demands thus overlap with those of the mainstream trends of the global market to a large extent. That means sanctions enforced by influential states against a specific country will have certain effects. It would be simplistic to say that if sanctions are not all-effective, they are totally ineffective.

Bypassing sanctions is not a mystery for any country, but in a world with permanent competition over progress and development, the impeding quality of sanctions is remarkable. They can severe our connections with key global processes as we can already see how fiscal and technological sanctions have caused problems for our country in import and export.

Although an aggressive diplomacy may have a number of advantages and show our degree of independence, we could never overlook its adverse effect on economic opportunities and investment. Economic crisis is in its final days in Western countries. While reinvestment and revival of some industries appear as arduous tasks, Iran as a country were investment is highly profitable has the best opportunity to absorb wandering capital into its economy and gain a bigger share of the global market.

At this point, aggressive policies may have propagandistic merits for us, but they will definitely push our country away from a giant economic leap. For a country like Iran which is trying to implement transformative economic plans and is in need of global technology and capital that would be a great loss.

Sanctions will deprive Iran from seizing global opportunities. This blunder may not undermine the position of administration, but its long-term effects will inflict the Iranian society and its development.