Are sanctions instrumental or expressive?

In an increasingly globalized world, people in country A know more about other countries than they used to. Thus, there are more countries, such as B, which pursue policies that A feels are so bad that A must do something. The options of A fall with the distance to the offending country B. However, A can always impose a trade sanction on B. Consequently, international sanctions are<br/>getting increasingly common. Sanctions are analyzed in two largely disjunct literatures: One deals with the losses in A and B. The second analyzes the effect of sanctions on the policy of B. Both literatures are known for modest findings. This is well known by the decision makers in A. The paper argues that the purpose of many sanctions is expressive. They allow politicians in A to<br/>say that they do something, and this makes A’s population feel good.<br/><br/>