Economic sanctions against Iran have a long history going back to the early days of the fall of the Shah's regime and the rise of the new Islamic administration three decades ago. In recent years, as a direct response to Iran's suspected rising nuclear capability, the western world has responded by tightening the trade and financial sanctions noose around the Islamic Republic. This paper deals with three inter-related questions: (a) Can economic sanctions achieve their stated objective of halting Iran's nuclear ambitionsi (b) Are they in the long term interest of the countries imposing them (especially in relation to the oil and energy sector)e (c) What would be their impact on the (green) protest movement inside the country and hence on prospects for ultimate social and political change in the countryo Drawing from the economic theory of sanctions literature as well as recent experience in the region (chiefly Iraq), the paper argues that sanctions against Iran are doomed to fail by the virtue of the fact they stand to weaken the very civil society institutions which are to act as agents of real change in a long term democratization process.