V04-21, V04-22, V04-23, V04-24

Used either in conjunction with or in addition to warfare and diplomacy, embargo is a foreign policy tool designed to coerce governments into taking actions the originating nation deems necessary or appropriate. An embargo, strictly defined, halts both imports to and exports from the target nation, but it can also prohibit only certain kinds of trade or levy heavy taxes on a nation’s goods. More a political than a military tool, embargo is a form of economic warfare that uses a forced shortage of goods – and therefore cash flow – to place internal pressure on a country’s leaders in the hope of forcing policy or regime change.

In the twentieth century, the United States government has employed embargo against Cuba since the early 1960s, when Fidel Castro brought a Communist government to power, and also more recently against certain African countries, such as Liberia and Zimbabwe, where a series of civil wars have been funded by the diamond trade. The US embargo of Cuba began in 1961, when US leaders’ discomfort with having an ally of the Soviet Union so close to the United States – Cuba is an island only 90 miles from the tip of Florida – led them to explore economic tools as a way to dismantle Castro’s regime. In Africa, by contrast, embargoes on diamonds have sought, not to undermine a particular political ideology, but rather to protect common citizens by preventing warlords and dictators from trading diamonds for guns that they use to perpetuate civil war.

Although embargo imposed from outside a country is most common, an interior embargo is also possible. Called “autarky,” from the Greek words “self” and “sustain,” an autarky is a closed economic system. The autarkic country essentially embargoes all surrounding nations by allowing trade only among its own citizens and companies. Although the United States experienced a brief period of autarky from 1807 to 1809, when President Thomas Jefferson thought it best that the newly-formed nation break all economic ties with Great Britain, such extreme isolationism has proven hard to maintain.

1. The author of the passage is primarily concerned with

(a) debating the merits of a foreign policy tool
(b) undermining a common misconception
(c) providing information about a government practice
(d) advocating the use of a type of economic punishment
(e) bringing attention to a little known concept


2. Which of the following best describes the relationship of the third paragraph to the passage as a whole?

(a) A new idea and contrary evidence are introduced.
(b) Exceptions to the rules of economic embargo are discussed.
(c) The main idea of the passage is refuted using historical evidence.
(d) A third perspective on the coercive nature of embargo is outlined.
(e) The main idea of the passage is further discussed from a different perspective.


3. The author mentions EACH of the following as a goal of embargo EXCEPT

(a) to wage economic warfare
(b) to punish a country’s leadership for inappropriate policies
(c) to break economic ties with another nation
(d) to force a shortage of goods and cash flow
(e) to protect common citizens from violence


4.
The author would most likely agree with which of the following statements about the United States government’s embargo of Cuba?

The embargo of Cuba .


(a) was begun with the intention of undermining a political ideology
(b) is easier to enforce than embargoes of African countries, since Cuba is closer
(c) has forced Cuba to become an autarky with a closed economic system
(d) was a tactic of economic warfare used against the Soviet Union
(e) has put significant economic pressure on Cuba’s leaders