**"There are very few cases where you can definitely identify sanctions as having had a success, except sometimes in combination with other factors"** - The above quotation is from Professor Adam Roberts, a research fellow at Oxford University and one of the greatest British figures in the study of international relations. - Through analysis of various previously employed economic sanctions, it can be seen that there are many adverse effects. - Many countries have ignored economic sanctions where they believe the consequences of not following them is unlikely to lead to anything extreme such as war. - Other countries also become involved to 'undercut' imposed sanctions, for example China has become the [largest trading partner](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10742109) with Iran since UN sanctions on Iran have come into effect. - Sanctions cause massively disproportionate damage to the lives of ordinary, innocent civilians of a country rather than against the rulers who are often the real target for pressure. - For example, during the Kuwait liberation attempt by the US, economic sanctions devastated the country's [infrastructure](https://www.caabu.org/news/news/destruction-iraq-1990-2016) as they could not rebuild after US drone strikes. - It also caused a nation wide health crisis and child mortality rates skyrocketed: economic sanctions lead to the death of [670,000-880,000](https://www.carter-ruck.com/blog/call-for-lifting-of-un-sanctions/) children under the age of 5 in Iraq during the '90s. - In rare cases of 'success', sanctions were only one factor among many so it is difficult to identify the role in which the sanction itself played, but it is unlikely the sanction itself was the decisive factor or would have worked on its own. - For example, in South Africa it is considered that economic sanctions played some positive role in the change of white minority rule in Rhodisia to a rule by the black majority. - However, many other factors were at play during the Guerilla Bush War. - In addition, despite the effect of economic and diplomatic sanctions, Rhodesia developed and maintained a [powerful and professional military](https://web.archive.org/web/20081215104120/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919001,00.html).