American Sanctions Against the Soviet Union from Nixon to Reagan

by Donald G. Boudreau

This study has three main purposes. The first is to submit to critical review selected cases during the Nixon-Reagan administrations (those which received the most public attention) in which the United States Government has imposed economic, trade, or noneconomic sanctions against the Soviet Union for foreign policy purposes. The basic concepts, underlying assumptions, logic, and supporting evidence are all reviewed. Dr. Boudreau argues that given the nuclear arsenals of the two superpowers, alternatives short of military action are particularly crucial, and that the international signaling function provided by sanctions can assist in maintaining international peace and security. He contends that the standards of evaluation commonly applied are mistaken because they neglect an essential aspect of sanctions: their signaling effects. The second purpose is to present a discussion of the pros and cons of United States sanctions toward the Soviet Union with a view toward dispelling some of the criticisms concerning their ineffectiveness by pointing to neglected, but crucial goals, and attainment of sanctions. The third purpose is to shed light on a number of common issues, allowing a fuller policy debate, and offering general conclusions which (notwithstanding substantial differences in the selected cases) can be applied constructively in the future. Dr. Boudreau’s thesis is that American Presidents and the United States Government have attained some foreign policy objectives through such techniques, and that in viewing them as useful tools, will continue employing them in the future under certain circumstances.

287 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 10, 2012

About the author

Dr. Donald G. Boudreau is an internationally recognized expert in the field of economic statecraft. He is also the author of the books, “American Business and Daytime Dramas,” “American Sanctions Against The Soviet Union: From Nixon To Reagan,” "Resistance in the Gulag Archipelago (1918-1956)." and "Joseph Baum & The Newarker Restaurant."
Retired from Federal Government service, for nearly three decades, he held various United States Government appointments with the U.S. Postal Service, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of Energy, and finally and extensively, with the U.S. Department of Defense. He holds the Ph.D. degree in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies at The University of Geneva, Switzerland, a Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) degree with specialization in public management from Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey, and a B.A. degree in Political Science from Montclair State University in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, with Pi Gamma Mu and Pi Sigma Alpha, undergraduate academic honorary, the National Social Science and Political Science Honor Societies, respectively.
Dr. Boudreau served as Rutgers University’s premier Presidential Management Intern as a member of the first class of the Program (1978-80), having been nominated by Rutgers University and selected for such by the then U.S. Civil Service Commission in Washington, DC. The Presidential Management Intern Program (now, the United States Government’s Presidential Management Fellows Program) is a program “designed to attract to Federal service men and women of exceptional management potential who have special training in planning and managing public programs.” Formerly, he served as assistant business administrator for the Town of Irvington, New Jersey.
Dr. Boudreau is the recipient of, including among other awards received during his distinguished Federal Government career, the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence, a U. S. Treasury Department Sustained Superior Performance Award, and numerous other U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Defense performance awards. He moreover, while pursuing his doctoral studies at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (“the Institute”) at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, was competitively and jointly awarded by the Institute and the U.N. Centre For Human Rights, an Hautes Etudes Internationales Graduate Internship in International Organization that he successfully served with the United Nations Centre for Human Rights at the European Headquarters of the United Nations at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
Dr. Boudreau’s articles on various foreign policy and national security subjects have appeared in the journals, World Affairs, Strategic Review, The International Journal On World Peace, European Security, Diplomacy & Statecraft, International Peacekeeping, and Strategic Analysis (New Delhi). He and his wife, Zoraida de, and their family reside in the southeastern North Carolina fishing village of Calabash, the self-proclaimed international seafood capital, just above the South Carolina line.