Since the end of the Cold War, economic sanctions have become an essential instrument of global and national foreign policy, imposed to end civil wars and thwart nuclear proliferation, mass atrocities, and terrorism. But over the past decade sanctions have become...
The United States has a long history of enacting sanctions on Syria, beginning in 1979 with the designation of Syria as a “state sponsor of terrorism.” Initial measures were limited to restrictions on weapons transfers and targeted sanctions on government officials...
The U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran in 1979 following the Islamic revolution and the taking of U.S. hostages. Iranian imports to the U.S. were banned, and more than $12 billion in Iranian assets held in U.S. accounts were frozen. These sanctions were broadened in 1984...
The United States first imposed economic sanctions on Venezuela in 2017 when it blocked the government and its state-owned oil firm from access to financing and dividend payments. These actions, which initially came in response to the Maduro regime stripping of powers...
George A. Lopez United Nations Security Council sanctions continue to be used frequently to address a range of peace and conflict issues, from nuclear nonproliferation to the prevention and settlement of armed conflict. UN sanctions have also been utilized for...
Mary Ellen O'Connell Mary Ellen O’Connell is the Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Opponents of the Iran nuclear deal...
Michael C. Desch Michael C. Desch is Professor of Political Science and Co-director of the Notre Dame International Security Program. Winston Churchill famously said of democracy that it was the worst form of government except for all the others. The same could be...
David Cortright David Cortright is Director of Policy Studies for the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. The Iran nuclear deal resulted in part from the effective use of multilateral sanctions to apply persuasive pressure...
George A. Lopez and David Cortright In light of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s inauguration and his declared intention to enhance transparency and improve relations with the international community, a new and significant opportunity exists to end the nuclear...
Stephen W. Bosworth I have been dealing with North Korea since the 1990s, when we tried to implement the Agreed Framework, and later when I served as the U.S. Ambassador in Seoul. When I returned to active service as the Special Representative to North Korea in...
George A. Lopez The new North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has come to power in a fledgling nuclear state that thus far has resisted pressures from the West and the Security Council to denuclearize. As he scans the political horizon, Kim may arrive at several conclusions...
David Cortright and Linda Gerber-Stellingwerf The history of nonproliferation teaches that nations must be persuaded rather than forced to give up nuclear weapons capability. This is a difficult challenge with a regime as truculent as North Korea, where the primary...
George A. Lopez I disagree with my colleagues David Cortright and Mary Ellen O’Connell regarding the scope and direction of the Libyan intervention of the Security Council and NATO. The essential dilemma faced by the international community, as manifest in Security...
Robert C. Johansen International law and time-honored ethical traditions prohibit the targeting of noncombatants. Yet in most recent conflicts, more civilians have been killed than soldiers. What can we do to increase the influence of legal and ethical norms...
Maryann Cusimano Love General David Petraeus was in the hot seat during his Senate confirmation hearings in Washington this summer, and it had nothing to do with the heat wave outside. While senators were confirming Petraeus as commander of U.S. and international...
George A. Lopez Much attention is paid to noncombatant casualties caused by military strikes and terrorist bombings, but few observers have focused on the impact of non-military actions, such as economic sanctions, on civilians. The shift more than a decade ago from...
Linda Gerber-Stellingwerf Since the 1979 Islamic revolution and the subsequent hostage crisis, the United States has imposed sanctions against Iran on a continuous basis. The initial measures were moderately influential in resolving the hostage crisis, when combined...
George A. Lopez This post includes video content. (4:35) The nuclear standoff between Iran and the western powers has intensified to the point where the only question being asked in Washington is how “crippling” — to use Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s preferred...
An interview with Peter Wallensteen Peter Wallensteen, a professor at Uppsala University in Sweden and the Kroc Institute at Notre Dame, is an expert on economic sanctions and regime change. We asked him about the reform movement in Iran and how it would be affected...