From Effective to Useful Sanctions: Lessons Learned from the Experience of the European Union

The EU has resorted to sanctions in most crises of the past two decades: from the former Yugoslavia conflicts to the more recent cases of Iran, Syria and Russia. Sanctions have been increasingly used, but it not clear whether their adoption brings about desirable policy outcomes. Why does the EU impose sanctions if they do not work? The chapter argues that the effectiveness of sanctions should be understood in terms of usefulness. Effectiveness is measured against the achievement of policy objectives, usually the behavioural change of targets, but sanctions are instruments of foreign policy and they can be useful rather than effective. The study of the EU experience has led to nine lessons on ways in which sanctions can be useful and, thus, effectiveness could be understood. This chapter enriches the discussion on why sanctions are imposed even if they do not change the behaviour of targets.