Sanctions

The northern frosts: The EU should contain and unpower Russia in the Arctic

The Arctic is a pillar of Russia’s power. It is also its Achilles’ heel. As the challenge Russia poses to European security intensifies, the EU must devote more attention and resources to the region in its efforts to unpower Russia – limiting Moscow’s capacity to wage war in...

Analysis

30 October, 2025 By: Ondrej Ditrych
Easing, suspending and phasing out

This Brief examines the idea that compliance can be promoted through sanctions easing or relief. In particular, it shows how the gradual easing of sanctions employed in the field of development cooperation might be usefully transferred to the foreign policy realm.

Briefs

4 September, 2023 By: Clara Portela
Slow-acting tools - Evaluating EU sanctions against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine

Brussels put together an exceptionally hard sanctions package in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This Brief evaluates their effectiveness and concludes that while sanctions are taking time to produce effects, their impact will be long-lasting and hard to reverse.

Briefs

19 October, 2022 By: Clara Portela, Janis Kluge
Sanctions, conflict and democratic backsliding

This Brief presents an overview of EU sanctions policy, the rationales guiding their imposition and the expected impacts, focusing on the two types of situations in which the EU usually applies its measures: violent conflict and democratic backsliding.

Briefs

1 June, 2022 By: Clara Portela
Guardian of the galaxy: EU cyber sanctions and norms in cyberspace

This Chaillot Paper – which uses space exploration as a metaphor to demystify some of the concepts and challenges linked to cyber-related policymaking – focuses on the EU’s cyber sanctions regime.

Chaillot Papers

31 October 2019 Edited by: Patryk Pawlak, Thomas Biersteker
The real and hidden costs of Russia’s foreign policy

In recent years, Russia has resorted more and more frequently to military force to advance its foreign policy objectives. This overreliance on force, however, came with a price tag attached. Will Moscow continue with its combative stance?

Briefs

28 February 2018 By: Stanislav Secrieru
DPRK: game, reset and match?

This Alert focuses on the new South Korean President's efforts to pursue a policy of re-engagement with Pyongyang, and assesses to what extent this approach has chances of success, given the paucity of other diplomatic options.

Alerts

19 July 2017 By: Ramon Pacheco Pardo
EU sanctions in context: three types

This Brief provides an overview of EU sanctions practices. Considering the combined and interactive effects of co-existing sanctions regimes, it also examines the implications of sanctions measures, often closely interlinked with UN practice, for the EU as a multilateral actor.

Briefs

17 July 2015 By: Thomas Biersteker, Clara Portela
Sanctions: moving targets and goalposts

This Alert makes the point that sanctions regimes are not static: the relative importance of crises for a foreign policy actor can evolve over time, as domestic, regional or global politics change. As a responsive sanctioner, the EU, too, has displayed its ability to hit moving...

Alerts

23 July 2015 By: Francesco Giumelli
Sanctions against North Korea: a tricky dilemma

The sanctions against North Korea have been costly and technically difficult to implement. And since Pyongyang deems its nuclear programme to be essential for its national security (and therefore non-negotiable), their effectiveness in terms of non-proliferation has been limited.

Briefs

9 July 2015 By: Bernt Berger