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International sanctions regimes, i.e., restrictions imposed on the freedom of movement of individuals, good and finances, imposed either by international organizations (such as the United Nations or the European Union) or by national governments have been a key instrument in the toolbox of international diplomacy. Usually imposed in response to violations of international law, sanctions regimes have the stated goal of changing the behavior of state and non-state actors. Recent examples include the sanctions imposed by the European Union against various individuals and entities in the Russian Federation in response to the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, or the sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council on a number of individuals in Haiti, which are held responsible for violence and human rights violations which have been plaguing the country. However, the effectiveness of sanctions in actually changing the behavior of individuals and entities has long been questioned, with critics arguing that they are merely instruments of political signaling, addressed mostly towards domestic constituencies, rather than tools to resolve conflicts. More recently, as multilateralism enters a period of crisis, powerful members of the UN Security Council have used their veto to undermine sanctions regimes, for example, in the Central African Republic and Mali, or to weaken the investigative work of Panels of Experts and Monitoring Teams. The seminar will familiarize the students with the theory and practice of international sanctions regimes and explore the question whether they can play a role in changing the behavior of state and non-state actors.
The workshop will be divided into two parts:
During the first block seminar (31 May – 01 June 2024), students will learn more about the development of international sanctions regimes during the last three decades, their legal and institutional setting, analyze a number of case studies and discuss with former members of a UN Panel of Experts.
The second block seminar (14 – 15 June 2024) will familiarize the participants with the skills to investigate sanctions violations using real-life cases drawn from the lecturer’s time as sanctions monitor, including the identification and tracing of weapons and ammunition, as well as the drafting of note verbales to member state and other entities.
Short Profile
Wolf-Christian Paes is the Senior Fellow for Armed Conflict at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) – Europe, where he is leading a research program on the effectiveness of non-military tools to end violent conflicts. From 2018 to 2023, Wolf-Christian was the arms expert on the United Nations Panel of Experts on Yemen, where he investigated sanctions violations, as well as attacks on civilian targets and threats to maritime security in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Prior to joining the United Nations, he worked for the Bonn International Center for Conflict Studies (BICC) as the head of advisory services where he focused on security sector reform, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of former fighters and on the control of small arms and light weapons. On behalf of BICC, he spent several years as a peacebuilding advisor in Sudan and South Sudan. Wolf-Christian studied international relations, political sciences, and public administration at the universities of Bonn, Speyer, and Stellenbosch (South Africa). He has worked as a consultant for a number of development and humanitarian organizations including the World Bank, UNDP, UNODC and GIZ. Wolf-Christian is a reserve officer serving as an arms control inspector of the Verification Center of the German Armed Forces.
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| Literatur |
Michael Brzoska and George A. Lopez, eds. (2009) Putting Teeth in the Tiger – Improving the Effectiveness of Arms Embargoes, Emerald Books, Leeds.
David Cortright and George A. Lopez (2002) Sanctions and the Search for Security – Challenges to UN Action, Lynne Rienner, Boulder.
Andrea Charron and Clara Portela, eds. (2022) Multilateral Sanctions Revisited – Lessons Learned from Margaret Doxey, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal.
Enrico Carisch et al. (2017) The Evolution of UN Sanctions – From a Tool of Warfare to a Tool of Peace, Security and Human Rights, Springer, Cham.
Francesco Giumelli (2013) The Success of Sanctions – Lessons Learned from the EU Experience, Routledge, London.
A useful resource on UN sanctions, which includes all relevant documents and reports, is this website: https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/sanctions/information |
