Economic Sanctions; Reassuring Public Policy

Kern Alexander

Economic sanctions are increasingly being used to combat rogue states, international terrorists and economic criminals. This book offers a new assessment of economic sanctions as a public policy tool and identifies the key legal and regulatory issues in the design of economic sanctions policy in the post 9-11 environment. Kern Alexander places the use of economic sanctions in a broad international context to highlight the gaps in existing international sanctions programmes and the need to develop more effective and efficient multilateral institutions in this area. Moreover, this book identifies weaknesses of US unilateral and extraterritorial sanctions and the legal framework which supports their application. This perspective is especially important given the growing concern with states such as Iran and North Korea and the ongoing interest in how to combat weapons of mass destruction, transnational economic crime and terrorist financing. Kern suggests that although multilateral institutions have a role to play in monitoring the implementation of sanctions, the impetus for effective economic sanctions policy must come from national policymakers and regulators.