Blocked From Baseball

Cubans are in an uproar. Their pride and joy - the national baseball team - is being shut out of the World Baseball Classic, hosted by the U.S. The Treasury Department made the call a few days ago, according to ESPN (hat tip to Soxaholix for the link).

Now, I think the embargo is dumb and ineffective (obviously). But if we are going to do anything to hurt Cuba, this is precisely the right thing to bar them from. International sanctions have a very poor record: they almost never cause the desired change, and they often have undesired side effects; e.g. the strengthening of Saddam's regime. When sanctions have worked, it's because those being sanctioned felt shamed and excluded by those whose opinions they valued. The main example of this is apartheid South Africa. Economic sanctions against the Republic had very little effect; social and sport sanctions had a great effect. Remember, the powerful in any country are always rich: we'll never starve Castro. But we can make Cubans feel like their government is responsible for isolating them from the rest of the world. Letting the Cubans play would be to hand Castro a public relations prop for rallying national support; shutting them out will show ordinary Cubans the benefits of being a part of the Pax Americana.