Economic War

[Chuckie]

North Korea already has nuclear weapons and ICBM's and is working to mate the two technologies together. For the US or any other Nation State to try and force NK to stop development of these technologies is no longer viable. The genie is already out of the bottle.

Our best (and only) course of action now is NEVER bow to their future threats of blackmail and ensure that NK knows, without doubt, that total and immediate annihilation awaits them if they attack anyone.

 

[donner]

The bias I perceive in the article is towards negotiations and away from military action. This is typical for academic experts. Few have a broad enough perspective to fairly take in the military perspective on conflict resolution. Academics are as a rule, peaceniks.

The article does not display, in any overt way, partisan political bias.

I remain skeptical about the insights of "experts" even those with 30 years of experience and who enjoy respect in academic and related circles. Why? The fall of the Berlin wall and associated events were not predicted by any "experts". Seldom do you see experts discuss the probability that they are wrong - yet their knowledge and skills are fallible. They are in the business of promoting themselves as wise ones.

The article points out that the executive order has some new and powerful features that will potentially enable economic war to be more effectively conducted than in the past.

Should we trust the judgement of the President and his team of advisors or the judgments of "experts" based elsewhere? What is the basis for deciding between the two?? I lean toward trusting the judgement of the man voted into office. I believe him to be rational, intelligent, unconventionally and effectively provocative against his domestic opponents and the foreign enemies of this county. Our policies in dealing with NK, Iran, ISIS and other enemies has been a slow motion disaster over recent decades. The voters realized this and voted for change in the form of Trump.

That is like saying you should refuse the advice of your oncologist regarding treatment because some people go into 'spontaneous remission'. The doctor may not be completely right, but decades of experience do count for something.

And Presidents have always relied on 'experts' in different fields. In fact, that is how many of them became advisors in the first place. There will always be difference between what one expert says vs another, but that doesn't mean either person is wholly right or wrong. It will ultimately fall to the President to decide, of course, and only he or she will be able to decide how much faith to put in one expert or another (or neither).

but to the point i first set out to make, the use of economic sanctions isn't new and that there is a solid base of research about the topic.

 

[donner]

Back up those statements with links so we may all view them from an objective view?

I'm not sure if you're doubting my recollection of history, questioning whether the sanctions worked or simply unwilling to look up the topic yourself here.

So i have to ask, are you looking for references to the fact that we used targeted sanctions against individuals as it related to the invasion of Crimea, or an evaluation of their effectiveness?

This was written early on and has some more in-depth analysis of how the sanctions were intended to work and areas where they might or might not succeed.

Ukraine-Related Sanctions: Facts and Assessment

and

Frontline has an interview transcript discussing the history of the sanctions and a bit about their effectiveness

When Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine last March, the United States and European Union responded with an economic weapon — sanctions.

The first few rounds, applied in March and April of 2014, targeted Russian and Crimean officials, as well as businessmen seen to have close ties to President Vladimir Putin — his “inner circle” — with travel bans and asset freezes.

Since then, the West has steadily expanded its sanctions against Russian entities, targeting major businesses and parts of Russia’s financial, energy and military industries.

FRONTLINE talked to Anders Åslund, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, on Jan. 8, 2015 about the effects and consequences of Western sanctions on the Russian economy. Åslund served as an economic adviser to the Russian and Ukrainian governments in the 1990s.

One interesting thing about the interview is that Åslund discusses some of the steps Putin and the Russian government took to deflect the impact some of the sanctions, as well as the impact the falling price of oil had on how well (or not) the sanctions worked.

 

[CHenry]

His army is only dedicated to his cause because they have to or they get a bullet.
If we took out Kim and his top commanders, the military would surrender. They just wanna be free n eat a steak dinner.
Send in some Seals with Snipers.

 

[Hobbes]

"You only have to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down", Adolf Hitler, June 1941 on the topic of Russia.

 

[Dale00]

That is like saying you should refuse the advice of your oncologist regarding treatment because some people go into 'spontaneous remission'. The doctor may not be completely right, but decades of experience do count for something.

And Presidents have always relied on 'experts' in different fields. In fact, that is how many of them became advisors in the first place. There will always be difference between what one expert says vs another, but that doesn't mean either person is wholly right or wrong. It will ultimately fall to the President to decide, of course, and only he or she will be able to decide how much faith to put in one expert or another (or neither).

but to the point i first set out to make, the use of economic sanctions isn't new and that there is a solid base of research about the topic.

Angels dancing on the head of a pin and all that. Oncology and International Relations (same ??). Broad economic sanctions vs Targeted economic war against specific banks and companies.

What matters is what will happen with allied efforts to economically target NK and NK-facilitators. The U.S. and our allies badly need Trump to succeed. Trump opponents need to stop reflexively opposing him on every issue....especially this one.