Chapter 4 shifts the focus from why the US fears the ICC to when it opposes the ICC. The basic idea underpinning this portion of the book is that even though America’s fear that the ICC might someday target its troops is a constant, US policy toward the Court is a variable. I start by generating a typology of three broad strategies that the US might pursue in response to ICC investigations: opposition, assistance, and neglect. I describe what makes each strategy conceptually distinct and highlight the specific tactics associated with them. I then explain why the US might pick one strategy over the others. My theoretical framework calls attention to the interaction of two key variables: (a) whether the ICC investigation threatens US troops and (b) whether the ICC investigation advances broader American foreign policy goals. An analysis of each US presidential administration’s policies toward the ICC provides strong support for the theoretical framework.

Africa is disproportionately affected by economic sanctions imposed by countries in the Global North, particularly by the US. A little-studied dimension of these sanctions programs is their humanitarian impact, particularly given that these programs are often justified as being “smart” or “targeted” and thus negating such collateral effects. This chapter argues that the opposite is true in the area of financial inclusion. It is due to the difficulty of complying with US banking regulations, which is exacerbated by these sanctions programs, resulting in a “chilling effect” whereby retail banks choose to withdraw from the African market rather than risk violating US law and incurring the crushing penalties that follow from that, including the possible debarment from the Federal Reserve System and the inability to access the US financial system. The dollar’s unrivaled status as the global reserve currency makes the risk of incurring this financial “death penalty,” as it is sometimes termed, too great to bear. This withdrawal of retail banking services severely hampers financial inclusion in Africa and has a direct, negative effect on efforts at poverty reduction and sustainable development, one which is rarely a part of policy discussions about sanctions, yet raises significant social justice issues.

Sanctions have overall made a negative impact on the health outcomes of the North Korean people. The reasons are multifactorial. Sanctions are complex and have created massive administrative barriers and logistical challenges for the organizations that wish to take the time and effort to navigate them to provide humanitarian aid. Banks are hesitant to partner with those who work in the DPRK to avoid any possible risk that they could unknowingly be evading sanctions. For a similar reason, international funding for health in the DPRK has plummeted. The Covid-19 pandemic and associated DPRK-imposed border shutdown has exacerbated the precarious health status of the North Korean people. A reform of the sanctions regime is needed to ensure necessary humanitarian aid reaches the most vulnerable.

United States sanctions undermine Iran’s ability to import critical agricultural products, especially wheat. Despite long-standing exemptions for humanitarian trade, sanctions have fragmented Iran’s wheat-supply chain, deterring major commodities traders, interrupting payment channels, and delaying shipments. While Iran does continue to import wheat to meet its food security needs, commodities traders can extract a higher price from Iranian importers, citing the unique challenges of exporting to the country. In this way, sanctions contribute to structurally higher prices for wheat in Iran. The country’s growing dependence on wheat imports, driven by demographic changes and worsening climate conditions, has made these disruptions more acute. Efforts to mitigate these effects, such as humanitarian trade arrangements launched by multiple US administrations, have largely failed due to bureaucratic inefficiencies and financial sector overcompliance. As a result, Iranian households have had to contend with significant food inflation, even for staples such as bread. Considering that the negative humanitarian effects of sanctions are both persistent and systemic and have been long known to US officials, it is difficult to conclude that the effects are truly unintended.

Throughout thirteen years of conflict, Syria was experiencing one of the world’s major humanitarian crises, necessitating a vast humanitarian response involving various UN agencies and (inter)national and local nongovernmental organizations (INGOs, NGOs). Humanitarian operations in Syria faced numerous challenges, with sanctions and unilateral measures being prime examples. Despite the theoretical availability of humanitarian exemptions, the semi- comprehensive sanctions and donor conditionality directly and indirectly hindered humanitarian efforts. Drawing on various data, the chapter illustrates how sanctions created obstacles for humanitarian work falling into three categories: financial challenges related to money transfer due to overcompliance and de-risking; legal challenges linked to due diligence, compliance requirements, and interpretation of sanctions; and operational challenges related to “dual-use” regulations, “State Sponsor of Terrorism” designation, as well as direct sectoral sanctions. The chapter further highlights the limitations of humanitarian exemptions, arguing that they fail to effectively mitigate the negative impact of sanctions. Additionally, the chapter elaborates on the indirect impact of sanctions with regard to oil supplies and currency depreciation and fluctuations. It emphasizes the urgent need for sanctioning states to actively engage in protecting and insulating the work of humanitarian organizations, and raises the question of accountability for the impact of sanctions on aid beneficiaries.

This chapter frames the adverse consequences of sanctions as a product of the interplay between government policy and commercial decision-making. It argues that corporate decision making about economic sanctions is an important factor behind the efficacy of sanctions. Commercial actors also play a central role in causing or amplifying the adverse consequences of sanctions. The chapter presents sanctions from a legal perspective, treating sanctions as legal rules that are limited by traditional notions of jurisdiction. At the same time, these rules contain significant ambiguities and are accompanied by heavy enforcement. Commercial actors respond by adopting risk avoidance strategies such as de-risking and overcompliance. These strategies produce adverse consequences for innocent populations, NGOs, and others that are not the stated targets of sanctions. The tendency for commercial actors to terminate trade relations beyond the actual terms of sanctions regulations is worth studying because it reveals a gap between the expectations of government policymakers and business practices. It can also make sanctions weaker and incentivize the creation of “unsanctioned” trade channels. The chapter concludes with a call for governments to clarify expectations about sanctions so that commercial actors do not face a dilemma between crippling compliance costs or crippling enforcement.

Sanctions regimes can and have had both direct and indirect negative impacts on humanitarian action. These include restrictions on goods necessary for a humanitarian response, and de-risking by private sector actors, which restricts or prevents humanitarian organizations from accessing the services these actors provide, such as banking or transport. These challenges have been documented in humanitarian crises across the world, from Syria to Somalia, Afghanistan, and Sudan, hindering the ability of those in need to access and receive assistance and protection. There are several ways in which we can ensure sanctions regimes do not hinder aid. Chief among them is the inclusion in sanctions regimes of humanitarian exemptions, which explicitly exclude humanitarian action from their scope of application. Although progress on that front in recent years has helped, challenges remain. This chapter highlights the need for continued efforts to ensure that humanitarian action is safeguarded. These include the development of guidance on the scope of sanctions and on humanitarian exemptions, continued awareness-raising of the issue, stronger dialogue and engagement between governments, the private sector, and humanitarian organizations, and better risk sharing. Overall, there is a need to continue to put the focus on the dramatic needs of millions of people who depend on humanitarian organizations being able to do their work without hindrance and in accordance with international humanitarian law (IHL).

This chapter examines the growing prevalence and impact of sanctions designations on individuals, companies, and nations globally. It highlights the severe economic and personal consequences of such designations, which can lead to bankruptcy and business dissolution, often resulting in long-lasting and potentially irreparable damage. Further, the chapter critiques the process of sanctions designation as fundamentally at odds with core principles of the rule of law, particularly those central to Western legal traditions. These principles include the government’s duty to clearly articulate legal prohibitions, the necessity of providing specific accusations and supporting evidence to those penalized, the right to contest such evidence, and the availability of a meaningful appeals process. By analyzing these discrepancies, this chapter calls for a reevaluation of the sanctions framework to align it more closely with established legal norms and protections.

The complexity of international economic sanctions, breach of which can carry severe penalties, is well known to cause banks and other financial institutions to “de-risk” in relation to sanctioned countries. The practice of denying financial services to entire classes of people prevents those who need to transfer funds to or from sanctioned countries from accessing traditional banking channels, often leading them to rely instead on Informal Value Transfer Systems (IVTS). Where IVTS service providers are not properly licensed, customers increasingly risk being targeted by law enforcement agencies under wide-ranging civil forfeiture laws. The chapter considers how this state of affairs has developed, with a focus on members of the Iranian diaspora who seek to transfer money between Iran and the UK and US. Two individual case studies are considered and the authors address the treatment of those caught in the crosshairs of sanctions and anti-money laundering measures and some of the remedies available to them.

Between 2015 and 2022, the Venezuelan economy was crumbling to an extent otherwise only seen in war-ridden economies. This collapse is mostly attributed to failed economic governance and the collapse of the oil sector, the most important contributor to the country’s foreign income. However, starting in 2017, the US imposed sectoral sanctions limiting financial transactions and oil and gold exports from Venezuela. The main debate about the effects of the US-imposed sanctions has been about their relative responsibility for the plummeting oil-production. This chapter instead discusses the impact of sanctions on the Venezuelan non-oil private sector. Sanctions affected companies through a credit crunch and severe limitations in access to supplies and markets. The sanctions have had the overall effect of informalizing and increasingly criminalizing the Venezuelan economy, while we also see the emergence of a new business elite with close ties to the government. We argue that in the case of Venezuela, sanctions were counterproductive as they had strong negative impacts on groups sharing the cause of those imposing the sanctions. In this case, US-imposed sanctions weakened and divided the private sector (as much as the Venezuelan opposition), which has been a main supporter of the political opposition supporting the US goal of regime change.

This chapter focuses on past literature on resource-wealthy countries and examines how alluvial diamond wealth may present unique challenges for states. State theory is discussed, and the “opaque” state concept is compared and contrasted with these. Then, an overview of different arguments that have been made to explain the relative decline of Zimbabwean institutions is given. Most of these can fall into three central categories: the psychology of leaders in ZANU-PF, the failure of economic policy, and external sanctions. The large diamond find in eastern Zimbabwe in 2006 is presented as a “critical juncture” for Zimbabwean institutions. Thus, this chapter places Zimbabwe in the overall population of cases when it comes to resource wealth and compares and contrasts how past approaches to resource politics, which have heavily focused on the oil sector, provide a roadmap for examining alluvial diamond wealth. However, this research must also be built upon as different resources, particularly a rapid increase in alluvial diamond wealth in the case of Zimbabwe, bring various challenges to state capacity and democratization.

The Mexican Constitution prohibits any form of discrimination that infringes on human dignity, rights, and freedoms. This is further reinforced by the federal labor law, which outlines discriminatory workplace practices, and the federal law for preventing and eliminating discrimination, which provides preventive measures, equality initiatives, and complaint procedures. Employers in Mexico are legally required to adhere to these regulations. Although no specific legal standards exist for demonstrating reliability and validity in employment selection tests, employers using such tests must demonstrate their job-related relevance. Employers found guilty of discrimination may face fines ranging from 1,400 to 30,000 USD, with penalties determined by intent, severity, and recurrence. Common administrative sanctions include mandatory training for involved staff and internal awareness campaigns. Publicizing these cases has proven effective in raising awareness in human resources professionals, encouraging the elimination of discriminatory practices in the workplace. These legal and administrative measures aim to foster a fair and inclusive work environment in Mexico.

In the first years of the twenty-first century, Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush sought to develop a strategic and economic partnership. Yet by 2007 US–Russian relations were marked by friction, and after 2012 they deteriorated into bitter enmity. This chapter argues that blaming the degeneration of relations on the KGB background, paranoia, and imperial ambitions of Putin is too simple and one-sided. It shows that the United States also spurred the decline by supporting “color revolutions” in countries around Russia, promoting NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine, pushing regime change in countries such as Syria, Libya, and Venezuela, and placing missile defense systems in Eastern Europe. Although Russia and the United States cooperated on a strategic arms reduction treaty, Russian entry into the World Trade Organization, and restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program, conflict increasingly overshadowed such collaboration. That outcome was not inevitable. Instead, unwise policy choices led to clashes, dishonest statements eroded trust, needlessly provocative rhetoric exacerbated tensions, and media sensationalism inflamed antipathies between Americans and Russians.

To link the economic sphere of international relations to the security sphere of international politics in this chapter, we treat economics as a function of politics and security. While controversial in some circles, this need not be so. Economists, historians, and political scientists have distinct answers to questions concerning the economy. That they differ in scope, interest, and focus should be viewed as alternatives for assessing the empirical world, not mutually exclusive representations of it. This is fundamental to the interdisciplinary approach of International Security. It should be no surprise that the vastness and complexity of the global economic system intersect with realms outside the purview of economics. Security is an arena in which the politics of economic decision-making are felt most intensely.

This chapter investigates moderating factors such as trust-related mechanisms, norms, and institutions, and their ability to explain the relationship between intrinsic motivation and compliance, which is free of regulatory coercion.

This chapter explores the function of ethics in the International Tennis Federation (ITF). It starts off by setting out the difference between ethics and law and then introduces the ITF’s substantive ethical rules. It explores covered persons under these rules, as well as the incumbent basic and other rules. It then examines the role and functions of the ITF’s Ethics Commission and analyses the few cases that it has entertained over the years. The chapter examines how ethics investigations are conducted, as well as the nature of relevant decisions by the Commission, which classifies breaches as either aggravated or non-aggravated. It futher examines the suspensive effect of the notice of charge and recourse to the ITF’s Independent Tribunal and the CAS, as well as the range of sanctions that may be employed. Finally, the chapter explores the elections and Eligibility Panel of the ITF in respect of those seeking elections to the higher executive echelons of the ITF.

This chapter brings together the book’s analysis and argues that crucial yet feasible reforms can be made to the operation of the global anti-financial crime regime. They include distinguishing between various categories of regulated services, such that certain essential services – for example, basic bank accounts – must be provided to everyone but attract reporting obligations, whereas highly specialised services with a significant potential to facilitate money laundering – for example, high-end investment banking activities – must be refused if a suspicion arises that proceeds of crime are involved. The chapter also argues that the FATF Recommendations should be revised to explicitly require countries to maximise intelligence-gathering opportunities that serve law enforcement purposes while minimising the risk of complicity in money laundering, terrorist financing or proliferation financing. In particular, this should entail the requirement for countries to ensure that the regulated businesses’ AML/CTF compliance efforts are aligned with the country’s law enforcement priorities, whether through public–private partnerships, ‘keep open’ laws or other appropriate means.

Over the past decades, multiple areas of law – including anti-money laundering (AML), counterterrorist financing (CTF) and sanctions rules – have emerged that regulate the interactions of the legitimate economy with known or suspected criminals. These rules impose significant compliance burdens on regulated sectors and their effectiveness is often contested. Furthermore, they raise profound civil liberties questions, such as whether one can be excluded from banking or other services based on a mere suspicion of crime or what the permissible extent of financial surveillance is. Despite the growing recognition of the extraordinary role that AML/CTF and sanctions laws play in shaping our societies, there have been few attempts to trace in detail the historical evolution of global thinking about the dilemmas that those laws present, with a focus on key policy tensions rather than the mere development of laws and institutions. This chapter offers an introduction to the overall book project and outlines the policy intentions it studies.

This chapter considers examples of State enforcement of international law, including in cases of war crimes and genocide. It then assesses collective enforcement under mechanisms provided for in the UN Charter, giving particular consideration to UN sanctions, including Australian law and policy approaches giving effect to sanctions, and peacekeeping.