The Bureaucratic Opportunity Cost of Economic Sanctions: The Unaccounted-for Administrative Burden of Communication and Application on the Sender's Trade Bureaus
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2017-09-12
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The use of trade and economic sanctions as diplomatic tools has changed over time in order to adapt to changing realities: an increase in global political and economic interdependence and relative aversion to use of force: sanctions are becoming more common,1 increasingly targeted, and applied towards individuals.2 More recently, the increased importance of economic policy,3 commercial diplomacy and trade promotion,4 coupled with and in many ways the result of a truly interconnected world renders it useful to reassess some of the calculations involved in utilizing economic sanctions. Global commerce, company structures, and financial flows are increasingly complex and ambiguous, increasing the confusion already inherent to sanctions implementation. Technological advances (such as e-commerce), the growing importance of the internet as a factor for enhancing business and export success, and government's relatively slow adoption of new technologies, have presented new challenges which have not yet adequately been factored in to the sender's5 cost calculation in the use of sanctions.
The domestic burden on the sanctions sender has not adequately considered the opportunity cost of tasking trade bureaus with sanctions-related work. Trade bureaus and diplomats play significant roles in a country's export successes, which is directly linked to domestic job creation as well as foreign policy objectives. The opportunity cost of sanctions communication and application on trade bureaucrats should be measured, and in certain cases, when appropriate and recommended by cost-benefit analysis, the burden should be shifted to other departments which are more aptly suited to efficiently handle it, or preferably, to automated and integrated websites. The calculation of this detrimental effect should be a staple of pre-sanctions analysis and using the right tools it can be mitigated or avoided altogether, therefore reducing the domestic burden of sanctions on the sender.
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Oujegov, Vladislav. (2017). The Bureaucratic Opportunity Cost of Economic Sanctions: The Unaccounted-for Administrative Burden of Communication and Application on the Sender's Trade Bureaus. (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.