Arrangements to compensate countries whose support for the sanctions is central thus can be critical. Greater use should be made of Article 50 of the UN Charter, which sets forth a means by which third party states hurt by sanctions aimed at another state can approach the Security Council for redress. In addition, Congress should consider establishing a fund for this purpose within the U.S. foreign assistance budget. Sanctions should focus to the extent possible on those responsible for the offending behavior or on penalizing countries in the realm that stimulated sanctions in the first place. Recent legislation aimed at discouraging non-American entities from contributing to Iran's missile program is a step in the right direction.
Sanctions tend to be a blunt instrument that often produce unintended and undesirable consequences.
Humanitarian exceptions should be included as part of any comprehensive sanction, both for moral reasons and because allowing a target to import food and medicine should make it easier to generate and sustain domestic and international support. All sanctions embedded in legislation should provide for presidential discretion in the form of a waiver authority. Such discretion would allow the President to suspend or terminate a sanction if he judges it is in the interests of national security to do so. The rheostat would replace the lightswitch as the operative metaphor. Such flexibility and latitude is needed if relationships are not to become hostage to one interest and if the executive is to have the flexibility needed to explore whether the introduction of limited incentives can bring about a desired policy end.