An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Eva Nanopoulos (IASH-SSPS Research Fellow)
Decolonising Economic Sanctions: A Legal History
The talk will introduce the project Decolonising Economic Sanctions: A Legal History. What are known as ‘economic sanctions’ are generally treated as coercive but ultimately ‘peaceful’ instruments by international law. As a result, sanctions are frequently deployed by states and other international actors during ‘peace-time’ to pursue a variety of objectives. Yet, the legal concept and practice of ‘peaceful sanctions’ is ridden with contradictions. Prior to the twentieth century, international law viewed sanctions as a violent form of warfare that is illegal outside active hostilities. Conceptually, they conflict with the dominant liberal ideology that only the free market and economic freedom can deliver peace. And in practice, many sanctions are cast in official legal and political discourse as instances of aggression or economic warfare. Against this background, the project has three main aims: a) to trace the evolution of the international legal status of economic forms of violence; b) to draw its connections to the history of capitalism, colonialism and imperialism; c) and to understand the role of international law in delimiting the boundaries between violent and non-violent forms of economic violence, enabling and legitimizing new forms of (imperial) violence whilst disabling others (anti-imperial or counter-hegemonic) forms. The talk will situate the project among the growing critiques of sanctions, introduce its key ideas, and explain why a decolonial legal history remains critical to understanding, contesting and resisting non-military forms of violence.
Please join in-person, or click the link below to join the webinar:
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/81857401179
Passcode: 6aSe7GF7