United Nations Sanctions Regimes and Selective Security

Abstract

This book investigates the selective nature of UN sanctions regimes with a specific focus on the post-Cold War era. Legally binding on all members UN sanctions are the most effective and legitimate non-violent multilateral tools to respond to international security threats, symbolically more powerful than unilateral or multilateral sanctions because they enjoy global support. However, since 1990, dozens of threats to international peace were met with sanctions, but many others were not. How can we explain this incoherent approach? With a focus on the selectiveness, rather than effectiveness of UN sanctions the author reflects on the shifting geopolitical tensions between Security Council members and uses a variety of widely used academic datasets to provide a unique overview of what determines sanctions and sanctionable events. The primary audience will be scholars and students of international relations, international organizations, security studies, and political economy.