Does Supranational Coercion Work? Onset, Impact and Effectiveness of EU Sanctions

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Gerald Schneider
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 277227328

Economic sanctions are one of the most frequently used coercive measures in international politics. Although the European Union increasingly relies on this instrument since the end of the Cold War, the sanctioning policy of the supranational organization faces severe criticism. These objections include the accusations that the EU levies sanctions against the wrong target and that the effects are either negligible or even counterproductive. The EUSANCT project addresses these concerns and examines the onset, economic impact and effectiveness of EU sanctions through an over-arching political economy framework that extends existing sanctioning games. Understanding economic coercion as a stepwise process, the German-Polish research team will: - examine the extent to which coercive policymaking by the supranational organization is biased;- analyse the short- and long-term economic repercussions of sanctions in selected target countries by estimating financial market reactions and changes in trade, investment and development; - establish the short- and long-term economic consequences of these sanctions in two sender countries (Germany, Poland) by focusing on the stock market returns of exposed and less exposed sectors and firms; - assess the effectiveness of EU sanctions. The four subprojects will complement each other and provide a comprehensive evaluation of the supranational sanctioning policy of the European Union between 1990 and 2014. To this end, the EUSANCT team will extend existing data sets on the threats and imposition of economic sanctions and use a broad mix of quantitative and qualitative techniques to answers the questions raised within the different subprojects. The project will enlighten academic and policy audiences about the chances and limitations of EU sanctions and discuss how the design of sanctions influences their impact and effectiveness. It will also lead to the publication of international visible research articles and book chapters, strengthen the already existing research collaboration between the two PIs and their host universities and culminate in the publication of two doctoral dissertations possible that shall be co-supervised by the two PIs.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Poland
• Co-Investigator: Professorin Dr. Paulina Pospieszna