English has a terrible word for these synchronized actions that the United Nations Security Council is threatening against the government of Liberian President Charles Taylor. But though ''sanctions'' is an inadequate word, it is a good idea when other forms of persuasion have failed. Sanctions are a collection of penalties for forcing compliance with moral authorities. But sanctions have never yielded immediate results. They were never meant to.
Sanctions also have a history of failing.
But this happens only when there is no full agreement within the international community about the need to apply them against a certain country. By all those indications, the government of President Charles Taylor of Liberia is an ideal system against which sanctions are likely to achieve their desired effects. Now, one of the first things sanctions will do is contain the government of President Charles Taylor right there within Liberia. This means government officials will not be able to travel to other countries. When that happens, the foreign nationals upon whom President Taylor depends to carry out the illicit deals that bring him extra money will be more inclined to cheat Taylor in those deals, if they are carried out at all.