The elimination of the blunt general trade sanctions, which are already leaking, would lift a considerable burden off the Iraqi people. At the conclusion of his February trip to the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell created a new moment in the tragic and puzzling quagmire of United Nations sanctions on Iraq by calling for smart sanctions. This pronouncement sparked a major foreign policy debate regarding what some consider U.S. impotence in dealing with Saddam Hussein. The debate demonstrates that both the UN and the United States desperately need a realistic strategy to halt the current collapse of the comprehensive sanctions regime. This search has legitimacy because there remains justifiable concern about holding in check Iraqi designs to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Smart sanctions constitute the strategy for stifling such weapons development.
Although the term smart sanctions is new in U.S. policy circles, defining its precise contours has been the subject of a number of UN expert meetings in recent years. Technical knowledge on these matters exists and can be mobilized to create a rather effective system for controlling the flow of expertise, material and monies which might be used for weapons development. But member states must authorize the Security Council to tap this knowledge base. Thus U.S. leadership on this issue is critical. Within this scheme Iraqi oil revenues and military-related imports would remain strictly controlled, but trade in civilian consumer goods would begin to flow freely.