Economic sanctions are an increasingly important and frequently used tood lf statecraft. Confronted with intractable situations abroad, policymakers and the public alike often view sanctions as an attractive middle option between doing nothing and intervening directly. This popularity, however, runs counter to a widespread sense in the foreign policy community that sanctions rarely accomplish much while inflicting substantial hidden costs on various constituencies. Economic globalization, technological development, and the information revolution, moreover, may be altering the degree to which, and circumstances under which, sanctions can be effective. This study group explored the utility of sanctions, looking at the mahor post-Cold War experiences of sanctions through a comparative analysis to derive lessons from recent history for current and future policy. The resulting publication was Economic Sanctions and American Diplomacy (1998), edited by Richard N. Haass.