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People talk about smart sanctions and crippling sanctions. I've never seen smart sanctions, and crippling sanctions cripple everyone, including innocent civilians, and make the government more popular.
Mohamed Elbaradei
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Sanctions often harm innocent people while failing to effectively target the intended government or entities.

In this quote, Mohamed ElBaradei critiques the concept of sanctions as a tool for achieving political goals. He argues that rather than being 'smart' or effective, sanctions tend to have a broad and damaging impact on the civilian population, ultimately strengthening the very governments they aim to undermine. This highlights the moral implications and unintended consequences of such measures in international relations.

Themes

SanctionsPoliticsCivilian ImpactGovernmentInnocence

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about international relations, one might quote this to highlight the negative effects of sanctions on innocent populations.

More from Mohamed Elbaradei

It would be, in fact, very ominous if Iraq were to be able to get weapon-usable material, hydro-plutonium or highly enriched uranium from abroad.
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Countries that perceive themselves to be vulnerable can be expected to try to redress that vulnerability - and in some cases, they will pursue clandestine weapons programs.
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Egypt needs to catch up with the rest of the world. We need to be free, democratic, and - society where people have the right to live in freedom and dignity.
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I couldn't have imagined that I would live long enough to see Egypt emancipated from decades of repression.
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Psychology is as important as substance. If you treat people with respect, they will go out of their way to accommodate you. If you treat them in a patronizing way, they will go out of their way to make your life difficult.
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The gravest threat faced by the world is of an extremist group getting hold of nuclear weapons or materials.
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