Lately, the US has increasingly been ‘weaponizing’ economic sanctions to push through a foreign policy agenda. Making use of the centrality of the US in the global economy, it has forced foreign states and their firms to choose between halting trade with US sanctions targets or forfeiting access to the lucrative US market. In addition, the US…

The Eagle S incident – a refresher On Christmas Day 2024, the Estlink 2 electricity cable connecting Finland and Estonia was cut by the Eagle S, an oil tanker sailing under the flag of the Cook Islands and linked to the Russian ‘shadow fleet’ (the vessel was later added to the EU’s list of sanctioned…

Conventional Wisdom Challenged? Recent years have seen a wide range of non-UN financial sanctions being adopted against States and their instrumentalities, including central banks, as well as against high-level State officials. Prominent examples include the EU and US sanctions against the central banks of Syria and Iran, and the asset freezes against the serving Presidents of…