Economic sanctions in contemporary international relations: new forms of implementation

Abstract

The article discusses the application of economic sanctions in the context of current international economic relations which are evolving along with the development of new relations between states, their integration groups, and international economic and financial organisations. The current phase of globalization is unable to meet earlier expectations, as there are more and more disputes arising from conflicts of national interests, and in some cases, as a response to the above, sanctions are being applied. Most of the research in this area focuses on the legal basis for economic sanctions, while their economic features resulting from the peculiarities of the development of international economic relations are not given sufficient attention. This article addresses the problem of defining sanctions clearly, taking into account their specificity, legal status, the legality of application, and the effectiveness of regulations. Justification and unification of the economic definition of the category of “sanctions” may be a premise for preventing their abuse by individual states pursuing their own interests and may serve the purposes of proper legal interpretations within international organisations, primarily the UN. The authors suggest that the principles of the application of international sanctions should be made more precise in UN and EU regulatory documents. They draw attention to the new characteristics of international economic sanctions, in particular, to attributing protectionist features to these sanctions and using aggressive protectionism by states as a tool to promote national interests in order to achieve a competitive advantage.