Dall’analisi di Aditya Raj, Observer Research Foundation. Unilateral economic sanctions have undoubtedly become the primary weapon for responding to any geopolitical challenge. Be it the human rights situation in Xinjiang and Myanmar or the nuclear programmes of Iran and North Korea, the imposition of sanctions has been the first response to force the alleged wrongdoer to course correct. Recent sanctions imposed against Russia for invading Ukraine are the most comprehensive and coordinated actions taken against a major power since World War II. Examples of such unilateral economic sanctions include trade sanctions in the form of embargoes and the interruption of financial and investment flows between sender and target countries. A more problematic aspect of the unilateral economic sanctions regime is the targeting of third or neutral countries that engage in any sort of trade or commerce with the targeted state. The United States’ (US) law on economic sanctions, i.e., Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act, 2017 (CAATSA) allows for the imposition of sanctions on such third states if they enter into any significant transactions with the targeted states, i.e. Iran, North Korea, or Russia.
Questioning the legality of unilateral economic sanctions | ORF (orfonline.org)