>>Arguably the poster child for "effective" sanctions was South Africa...

And perhaps those against Rhodesia before that. But Margaret Thatcher called the SA sanctions "the way of poverty, starvation and destroying the hopes of the very people- all of them- whom you wish to help." John Major said disinvestment would "feed white consciences outside South Africa, not black bellies within it" though he backtracked later.

My question would be whether it was the sanctions that brought an end to Apartheid or whether it was an archaic imperial ideology whose time had come.

At this stage I'm still surprised that the Apartheid policy could have existed at all in our lifetimes. But then I recall that there are similar policies still existing in many nations and creeds. For example, check out the attitude towards Ahmadiyya Muslims even in the West, or the treatment meted out to Yazidis in the Middle East. Dr Seuss really was onto something when he wrote "The Sneetches" though human beings are far more vicious than even the proudest star-bellied Sneetch.