Authors' Roundtable on Sanctions and Economic Statecraft


The widespread and increasing resort to sanctions and other tools of economic statecraft threatens to reshape the international legal and political order. As the sanctions imposed against Russia enter their second year, there is no shortage of debates over the effectiveness of sanctions and their role in responding to armed conflict and violations of international law. At the same time, the widespread recourse to sanctions generates ripple effects across the globe, and disproportionately in the global South. And, as the United States uses sanctions to weaponize the dollar system against geopolitical adversaries, it becomes possible to imagine a world in which the dollar is no longer the dominant currency.  This roundtable discussion from the ASIL International Economic Law Interest Group (IEcLIG) will bring together historical, economic, political and legal perspectives on sanctions and economic statecraft. IEcLIG co-chair Ben Heath will be joined by Christine Abely, whose book The Russia Sanctions will be published by Cambridge University Press next year; Mona Ali, who is writing a book about the politics of the global dollar system; Daniel McDowell, whose book Bucking the Buck: US Financial Sanctions and the International Backlash against the Dollar was published this year by Oxford University Press; and Nicholas Mulder, whose book The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War was published last year by Yale University Press.

Speakers:

  • Christine Abely, New England Law
  • Mona Ali, SUNY New Paltz, Economics
  • Ben Heath (moderator), IEcLIG Co-Chair
  • Daniel McDowell, Syracuse, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
  • Nicholas Mulder, Cornell University, History

This event is organized by ASIL's International Economic Law Interest Group.