Hard Target: Sanctions, Inducements, and the Case of North Korea

This is a book about the limitations of economic statecraft. Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland explore why the United States and United Nations (UN) have found it extremely difficult to influence the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) with sanctions and inducements. Their wide-ranging analysis examines how the DPRK’s narrow ruling coalition, the structure of its economy, and its foreign economic relationships have made the regime remarkably resilient to attempts at bribery and bullying. Haggard and Noland approach their study with the intuition that the DPRK is a unique case and therefore adopt a theoretically eclectic approach to understanding its idiosyncrasies. Their analysis delves into the details of how the DPRK has managed to survive while being both reliant on foreign assistance and subject to robust sanctioning campaigns—including by the states that provide it with assistance. Readers will gain a deep appreciation of why the DPRK represents such a vexing challenge for the international community. Rather than being a “how-to” guide for employing economic statecraft against difficult targets, Hard Target is more of a cautionary tale.