Targeting Peace: Understanding UN and EU Targeted Sanctions

In recent years, the international community has increasingly come to abandon the use of comprehensive sanctions in favour of targeted sanctions. Unlike adopting a coercive strategy on entire states, actors like the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) have come to resort to measures that are aimed at individuals, groups and government members. Targeted sanctions involve adopting measures such as asset freezes, travel bans, commodity sanctions, as well as arms embargoes. Eriksson argues that recent changes in the practice of sanctions from comprehensive to targeted sanctions requires a new way of understanding international sanctions practice. Not only do we need to rethink our methodology to assess recent practice, but also to rethink the very theory of sanctions. This valuable new perspective provides recent thinking on targeted sanctions, trends in practice and unique case studies for evaluation. Based on substantial research, this is a must-read for students, scholars and practitioners interested in international politics.

Dr, Mikael Eriksson, Researcher, Swedish Defense Research Agency, Sweden