The New Czech Sanctions Policy and Legislation: From a Reluctant Internationalist to Keen European?

In response to security challenges, international sanctions policies have undergone significant changes since the end of the Cold War, including fundamental reforms of sanctions tools and the creation of new stimuli for sender states to comply with sanctions regimes. As a consequence, several states have adapted their national legislation and domestic procedures, as well as attempting to implement sanctions properly in order to increase their effectiveness. At the same time, numerous sender countries remain rather reluctant. The paper presents a single case study research, carried out on the Czech Republic, whose sanctions policy moved from a cumbersome and lengthy pattern to swift and flexible one during the past two decades. It compares the impact of developments within the United Nations and the European Union. These are the main, potential, sources of recent improvements, and the study attempts to identify which ones were more influential.