Survival from economic sanctions: a comparative case study of India and North Korea

Historically the United States has used economic sanctions as a foreign policy tool to punish states that do not meet international norms. Although this approach has not been very successful, yet it continues to be the cornerstone of US foreign policy. Therefore, this article adopts a comparative case study methodology to understand why US economic sanctions failed in the case of India, and whether there is any possibility of them achieving their proposed objectives against North Korea. During the course of this study, it was observed that at the time of the imposition of the economic sanctions, India's political ideology and the insular nature of its economy played a very important role in the failure of these sanctions. An analysis of the case of North Korea further highlights the existence of similar variables, enabling North Korea to maintain its regime and effectively negate the impact of these economic sanctions.