In a truly moral world, economic sanctions would never be necessary to be directly imposed upon other countries, because if people, countries and institutions were upset, appalled, or distressed by the undesired actions so taken by another nation, then they would simply boycott the products so being offered by that nation, or terminate contracts and suspend trade with them, or reduce their expenditures to them, forthwith, or all of the above. That is to say, if one nation is doing something that is morally suspect, such as an unjustified war against another nation, or terrorism, or genocide, or anything of this sort, and other nations, see this as being an affront upon humanity, no sanctions would actually need to be officially imposed, but rather through the subsequent business changes so taken by those other nations, the effect so of, would be clear and obvious.
The main problem with economic sanctions being imposed upon another nation, is that such is typically used as a very blunt instrument, along with it being also used as a deliberate tool to “punish” that nation, without often there having been a fair hearing, through a neutral party, to hear both sides of the dispute in question. In other words, official economic sanctions are treated as a “shortcut” to let that other nation know, that they are wrong, that they are currently performing bad actions, and therefore that they are deserving of punishment.
To believe that somehow, that one superpower nation, should effectively be judge, jury, and executioner, throughout the world, is a very troubling mindset. In reality, those that cannot properly make their case for sanctions against a particular nation, in a true court of law, in which each side, has their say; but desire instead to circumvent such by taking the law into their own hands, are stirring up a whole lot of trouble, without having taken into full consideration, that those that do not bother to try to comprehend how their sanctions will be perceived by the other side, as well as by neutral parties, have failed to acknowledge that every action is going to have a subsequent reaction.
After all, when one nation is perceived as being “holier than thou,” most other nations are going to take that point into full consideration, of which, they will themselves have contingencies in place, so that should they be painted subsequently as a pariah state, that they will still be operational and functional from a governmental level, without too much difficulty; especially in acknowledgement that there typically are other sovereign nations around, who are prone to seeing economic sanctions so being imposed upon another nation, as something worthwhile to be worked around. Further to the point, the sanctioned nation, will more than likely, have a response that will hurt the nation so having sanctioned them, if not in the here and now, then at some point in the future, for those nations that are wise and circumspect, are those nations that will hit back, when they are in the best position to do so.
It is, rather easy to be a bully, when there is no one that has the power to effectively fight back; but nations rise and fall, and those that have suffered from unjustified aggression, exploitation, sanctions, interference, unfairness, and deception, are eventually, sooner or later, going to have their say.