Clinton Official Outlines Economic Sanctions Policy

Clinton Official Outlines Economic Sanctions Policy
BY AMY JAFFE
Project Coordinator for Energy Research
Baker Institute for Public Policy
April 9, 1998

Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat, the senior economic official at the
State Department, said the Clinton administration is trying to develop a more
coherent strategy for the use of economic sanctions as a foreign policy tool.

Eizenstat, speaking at Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
last week before an audience of 200 students, faculty and guests from local
industry, noted that sanctions should be designed carefully so that the "target
feels the pain, and unnecessary hardships to the innocent are prevented."

He also noted that the United States should resort to sanctions only after
other diplomatic options have failed. "The challenge is to find a way to
improve the way we make sanctions decisions, to ensure that sanctions are part
of a coherent strategy, to accurately measure the costs and effects of sanctions
measures, to seek multilateral support where possible, and to improve coordination
between the administration and Congress," Eizenstat said.

Eizenstat was invited to speak on campus by the Baker Institute to complement
research on energy and sanctions policy currently under way. The Baker Institute
is slated to present a major study on energy issues and the Caspian Basin region
at the end of this month. That study is funded by the Center for International
Political Economy (CIPE).

Despite recent overtures for improved relations from the newly elected Iranian
government, Eizenstat spoke against easing sanctions against Iran. He noted
that calls to allow U.S. companies to ship Caspian crude through Iran "make
no sense whatsoever from an energy security point of view" because such
shipments would not diversify supply away from the volatile Persian Gulf.

"We want Caspian energy to diversify world energy supplies," he said.
"The United States, as a matter of policy, strongly opposes any pipeline
across Iran due to Iran’s support for terrorism and drive to acquire weapons
of mass destruction and missile technology."

On energy, Eizenstat noted that the U.S. should promote and encourage the discovery
of new oil reserves in U.S. territory as well as lending support to efforts
to spread out the international sources of supply. "We must not let the
present situation–energy prices at their lowest levels in years–lead us to
public complacency and the danger of the loss of political interest in pursuing
diversification of energy sources," he concluded.

For related information visit the following Web site:
James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy: http://riceinfo.rice.edu/projects/baker/index.html