The Success of Sanctions: Lessons Learned from the EU Experience

The effectiveness of sanctions cannot purely be measured by the way they change the behaviour of their intended target. The degree to which sanctions constrain a rogue state's behaviour and the signals they send to future targets should also be prime considerations.

In this thought provoking book Francesco Giumelli measures the true effectiveness of EU sanctions against a range of states including Belarus, Zimbabwe, Moldova, Uzbekistan, the USA and China. He demonstrates that focussing purely on behavioural change is limiting, especially when considering the actions and motivations of an international organisation, and develops a process to evaluate the direct and indirect impact of EU sanctions. Giumelli demonstrates the many different ways sanctions have been used by the EU to produce positive direct and indirect results and provides a multi-level framework to assess the success of sanctions in the future.