Art of Sanctions (Columbia University Press)

Economic sanctions are intended to be a nonmilitary means used by states to force their prerogatives on other states, entities, and individuals. Yet while sanctions have been increasingly used as a foreign policy tool, they are ineffective if executed without a clear strategy that is responsive to the nature and changing behavior of the target. In The Art of Sanctions, Richard Nephew offers a much-needed practical framework that focuses not just on the design of sanctions but, crucially, on how to decide when sanctions have achieved maximum effectiveness and how to improve them along the way.