Resources

This bibliography is provided as a resource for scholars, policymakers, and journalists and it will be updated periodically. We encourage specialists and users to alert us to new thematically appropriate material that should appear in updates of this bibliography. The bibliography was authored by Beatrix Geaghan-Breiner until June 2022 and thereafter by Audrey Thill with […]

Held in May 2023, a second Wilton Park conference was conducted in association with Fourth Freedom Forum’s project on Advancing Humanitarianism through Sanctions Refinement (AHSR) and Open Society Foundations (OSF), with support from the Government of Mexico and Government of the Netherlands, and it aimed to afford an opportunity for a diverse group of stakeholders […]

Published in Phenomenal World, authors Esfandyar Batmanghelidj and Zep Kalb take a look at the “distributional effects” of sanctions and whether they actually facilitate greater economic inequality and the concentration of wealth among the elite in Iran. They argue that to really understand sanctions, one must investigate how actors in a complex system relate to […]

This discussion paper by Delaney Simon explores recent reforms undertaken by states and how policymakers may use a ‘checklist’ and ‘code of conduct’ to reduce the collateral damage of sanctions regimes and evaluate the competing claims from passionate advocates for reform who are pleading with the outside world to ‘do something’ about a ruthless regime […]

A multistakeholder engagement was established in 2022 to undertake research and generate a set of voluntary principles to ensure that negative humanitarian impacts associated with sanctions and related regulations are mitigated and minimized. The AHSR team recognizes that targeted sanctions are vital for upholding norms and promoting international peace and security. When carefully designed and […]

Published by the Norwegian Refugee Council in January 2023, this report by Dr. Erica Moret seeks to fill a knowledge gap on financial sector derisking, focusing on potential remedies and solutions that governments, international organisations, the financial sector and other stakeholders could adopt. It is based on outcomes from a closed expert practitioner workshop held […]

The May 2022 Wilton Park conference brought together a diverse group of 40 sanctions and humanitarian sector experts from around the world to discuss their research and to examine ways of including stronger safeguards to prevent sanctions’ negative humanitarian impacts, which among other positive outcomes would improve the effectiveness of sanctions. Hosted in partnership with […]

To fully scrutinize the humanitarian impact of sanctions, the Sanctions and Security Research Project commissioned case studies on Iran and Venezuela, and collaborated with the Carter Center’s project on Syria, which recommend stronger safeguards to prevent negative humanitarian impacts and offer ways of improving the effectiveness of sanctions and strengthening of incentives. This paper is a […]

This case study on Venezuela was prepared by Francisco Rodríguez, 2021–22 International Affairs Fellow in International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations and Director, Oil for Venezuela. This study summarizes the evidence on the effect on Venezuela’s economic and social conditions of economic sanctions and other actions of economic statecraft taken by the United States and […]

This case study on Iran was prepared by Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, CEO of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, and principal member of When Money Can’t Buy Food and Medicine, a project funded by the Swiss Network for International Studies.