UN Security Council's Smart Sanctions in Light of 1929 Resolution: Maintenance or Threat of Peace?

Today there is a widespread consensus that the UN Security Council's comprehensive sanctions regimes have been a rather blunt instrument and further sanctions should be designed more humanely. Economic sanctions—even when targeted and designed in a “smart” way—are liable for severe human rights violations due to their complexity and the fact that unforeseen factors may greatly enhance their adverse side effects. Building on these experiences, UN Security Council measures of the type adopted against Iran in 1929 resolution have arguably managed to strike a more tolerable balance between the necessary degree of effectiveness and the injuries imposed. Increased awareness of the after-effects of sanctions is a prerequisite for making balanced proportionality assessments in the future, as well as maintaining international peace and security as the very goal of the original UN sanctions regime.