Sanctions as a Tool for Regime and Policy Change in former Colonies: The case of Zimbabwe

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Africa, grade: 2.2, Zimbabwe Open University (University of Zimbabwe), course: Political Science, language: English, abstract: This paper pays particular attention to sanctions as a potential agent of regime change and as an instrument for policy change. The bases for this paper are the debates that were brought by the west as well as by the Zimbabwean government. This incorporate democratization returns to rule law and terminates the culture of human rights abuses. They were the essentials of the sanctioning of Zimbabwe as upheld by the 'sanctioner´.On the other hand the Zimbabwean government have pointed out that sanctions were imposed in order to reverse the land reform and economic empowerment policies as well as remove the government of Mugabe. The research verified the working hypothesis that 'imposition of sanctions influences government policy change and may trigger unconstitutional regime change'. But can sanctions be seen as a tool for a regime and policy change in former colonies?The research found out that the policy of sanctions was implemented in Zimbabwe to remove the government of Robert Gabriel Mugabe for different reasons highlighted above both as upheld by Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu PF) and the United States of America and its western counterparts. There have been debates on the reasons Zimbabwe was sanctioned from the international and local spheres. It is on the basis of those debates that this document has come to be.