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The Evolution of UN Sanctions

From a Tool of Warfare to a Tool of Peace, Security and Human Rights

  • Includes discussions on the often forgotten but essential humanitarian intentions of today's coercive, but non-violent regimes adopted regularly by the UN Security Council

  • Highlights the historic undercurrents that helped to displace some armed aggression and economic warfare with UN sanctions

  • Covers the misconceptions and pretenses that confuse so many in today's policy decision making circles and academia who seem unaware of past trials and errors, and who measure the performance of UN sanctions only against the most advanced Western concepts of humanitarianism rather than against sustainable and truly multilateral approaches

  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxx
  2. Evolution of UN Sanctions System

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. An American Interlude: Sanctions Reinvented

      • Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister
      Pages 3-15
    3. Creating the Security Council and Its Sanctions System

      • Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister
      Pages 17-28
    4. Designing and Applying Chapter VII

      • Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister
      Pages 29-36
    5. NAM

      • Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister
      Pages 37-50
    6. From Comprehensive to Smart and Fairer Sanctions

      • Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister
      Pages 51-66
    7. Backlash Against the Backlash

      • Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister
      Pages 67-80
    8. UN Sanctions Measures

      • Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister
      Pages 81-109
    9. Commodity Sanctions

      • Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister
      Pages 111-132
    10. Emerging Threats and Sanctions: Abuses of Digital and Information Technologies

      • Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister
      Pages 133-162
  3. Narratives of UN Sanctions Cases

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 163-163
    2. Earliest Comprehensive Sanctions: Southern Rhodesia and Apartheid South Africa

      • Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister
      Pages 165-182
    3. Humanitarian Collateral Costs: From Iraq to Yugoslavia to Haiti

      • Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister
      Pages 183-223
    4. The Spread of Terrorism: Libya I, Sudan I, Afghanistan/Taliban, Al Qaeda and ISIL, Lebanon

      • Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister
      Pages 225-282
    5. Back to the Future: The Non-Proliferation Cases of Iran, North Korea and R2P Sanctions on Libya

      • Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister
      Pages 409-450
  4. Analysis, Conclusions and Recommendation

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 451-451
    2. Analysis and Conclusions

      • Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister
      Pages 453-482
  5. Back Matter

    Pages 483-501

About this book

Marking the 50th anniversary of UN sanctions, this work examines the evolution of sanctions from a primary instrument of economic warfare to a tool of prevention and protection against global conflicts and human rights abuses. The rise of sanctions as a versatile and frequently used tool to confront the challenges of armed conflicts, terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, is rooted in centuries of trial and error of coercive diplomacy. The authors examine the history of UN sanctions and their potential for confronting emerging and future threats, including: cyberterrorism and information warfare, environmental crimes, and corruption.

This work begins with a historical overview of sanctions and the development of the United Nations system. It then explores the consequences of the superpowers' Cold War stalemate, the role of the Non-Aligned Movement, and the subsequent transformation from a blunt, comprehensive approach to smart and fairer sanctions. By calibrating its embargoes, asset freezes and travel bans, the UN developed a set of tools to confront the new category of risk actors: armed non-state actors and militias, global terrorists, arms merchants and conflict minerals, and cyberwarriors.

Section II analyzes all thirty UN sanctions regimes adopted over the past fifty years. These narratives explore the contemporaneous political and security context that led to the introduction of specific sanctions measures and enforcement efforts, often spearheaded for good or ill by the permanent five members of the Security Council.

Finally, Section III offers a qualitative analysis of the UN sanctions system to identify possible areas for improvements to the current Security Council structure dominated by the five veto-wielding victors of World War II.

This work will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in criminal justice, particularly with an interest in security, as well as related fields such as international relations and political science.



Reviews

“A heavily documented, multifaceted work: part historical, part analytical and part judgmental or prescriptive in concluding how and where sanctions fit their purpose as well as where and why they have sometimes gone terribly wrong.” (Barbara Crossette, PassBlue.com, 2018)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Compliance and Capacity Skills International, New York, USA

    Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister

About the authors

Enrico Carisch is a partner in Compliance and Capacity Skills International, LLC. He served as a member of several United Nations groups of experts, was engaged by African and European States and organizations to assist in the strengthening of the management of conflict-sensitive natural resource revenues, and frequently collaborates with international companies, international organizations and academic institutions on improved sanctions compliance measures, services and technologies. 

Loraine Rickard-Martin is a partner in Compliance and Capacity Skills International, LLC. She was a sanctions committee secretary and a senior political affairs officer in the Security Council Affairs Division of the UN Department of Political Affairs from 1995 to 2009, a lecturer in United Nations sanctions at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs from 2010 to 2013, and Secretary of the UN High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change from 2003 to 2004. 

Shawna Meister is an independent researcher and analyst of international peace and security issues. She has written publications on various subjects including analyses of the effectiveness of sanctions, UN and regional peacekeeping missions, and the UN Peacebuilding Commission. Her research interests have recently broadened to the impact of uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) on the UN system. As a Research Associate for a non-profit organization in Ottawa, Canada, she manages projects, conducts qualitative and quantitative analyses, and works with practitioners and the public to help them transform research into practical applications. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Evolution of UN Sanctions

  • Book Subtitle: From a Tool of Warfare to a Tool of Peace, Security and Human Rights

  • Authors: Enrico Carisch, Loraine Rickard-Martin, Shawna R. Meister

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60005-5

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Law and Criminology, Law and Criminology (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing AG 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-60004-8Published: 08 November 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-86757-1Published: 12 June 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-60005-5Published: 27 October 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXX, 501

  • Number of Illustrations: 6 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Criminology and Criminal Justice, general, International Relations

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access