Browsing by Subject "sanctions"

In the past decades, sanctions have become a vital part of the European Union’s (EU) Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). To better understand decision-making within the CFSP, this work focuses on how the EU sanctions against Russia are upheld. It does so through the lens of the Netherlands and Finland, two small countries in the EU. The study concentrates on the way small countries participate in sanctions regimes, which is important due to the required unanimity for upholding sanctions. Both domestic dynamics for participating in sanctions as well as attitudes towards European cooperation are taken into account. By conducting a Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) on parliamentary debates in Finland and the Netherlands from 2016, the study compares the interests and focus of national politicians when sanctions are under discussion. The material consists of approximately 170 units of coding per country, which originate from around 15 debates throughout the year. The results offer new insight into some of the factors affecting decision-making of small states in sanctions. The data shows that the Netherlands has a stricter stance towards upholding sanctions on Russia, whereas Finnish politicians highlight the impact of sanctions on Finland. In general, both the Netherlands and Finland are in favour of upholding sanctions, but strongly differ domestically in the way they go about the sanctions. In conclusion, this study finds that small EU countries present themselves as strongly supporting EU unity when sanctions are in place. Nevertheless, these countries differ significantly in domestic preferences, meaning that they participate in sanctions regimes through different means.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine how economic sanctions imposed by the United States and their Office of Foreign Assets Control are enforced and why they are strictly observed in countries and by entities not under the United States’ jurisdiction. The focus is on Finland and how Finnish legislation enables this. This thesis includes a historical and theoretical look into the use of economic sanctions and into how global economic factors affect the way United States economic sanctions function. The thesis also establishes an overall view of the main issuers of economic sanctions that affect Finland. The effects of economic sanctions are analyzed by examining the legal case between Boris Rotenberg and four Finnish banks. Boris Rotenberg was placed under sanctions by the United States, which led to him being denied banking services and to his payments not being forwarded. This resulted in Boris Rotenberg suing the banks for the denial of the services. The case is important for demonstrating how the United States economic sanctions work in practice in Finland and how they affect entities not under the jurisdiction of the United States. The conclusion of the thesis is that the fact that economic sanctions imposed by the United States are not legally enforceable in Finland is of very little consequence since the repercussions of non-compliance are harsh. The United States economic sanctions cannot be violated without violating Finnish legislation, which in practice means that United States economic sanctions can be seen to be enforceable in Finland as well.