Targeted sanctions’ impact over rebel groups has not been examined by scholars, making it unclear whether the policy mechanism has the capacity to peacefully resolve intrastate armed conflicts and cease hostilities by weakening rebel groups. Considering the mentioned, the paper explores how targeted sanctions impact rebel groups, and suggests that properly monitored and effectively enforced targeted sanctions have the capacity to weaken rebel groups, via shortening rebels’ economic, military and political resources. Using the method of structured, focused comparison, the suggested hypothesis is empirically tested on the rebel groups of Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola in Angola. The findings of the study revealed that effectively monitored and enforced targeted sanctions are capable of lessening rebels’ military and political resources, however, observing sanctions impact on economic resources proved difficult. Based on the analyses and findings the paper suggests that imposition of targeted sanctions should be initiated at the early warning phase of a conflict, rather at the point when the intensity of conflict has reached its peak.

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The EU has for some time imposed sanctions against individiduals, i.e. targeted sanctions. These sanctions have had impacts on the listed individual in forms of limited procedural rights due to inter alia the limited disclosure of evidence. Improvements in the field were introduced by Kadi. Yet it remains difficult for the individual who wants to challenge a listing. The purpose of this essay is to examine how to obtain mechanisms for an effective judicial review in targeted sanctions cases when there is a non-disclosure of evidence to the EU Courts by the EU institutions. This essay will also discuss how the Courts standard of review could look like after Kadi. It will also address the need for an increased responsibility of the EU institutions, in the matter concerning the access to confidential information. This relates to questions regarding the transparency in the Union. This essay suggests that the mechanisms needed to acquire a higher intensity of review as well as an effective judicial review could be the use of closed material procedures and special advocates.

Targeted sanctions have become a commonly used conflict management tool over the last decades. Yet, operating in the state-centric context, previous research has highlighted the unintended negative effects of the instrument. What remains understudied is the effects of targeted sanctions on rebel groups' behavior. Acknowledging that sanctions are never imposed in isolation, this thesis seeks to explore the effects of targeted sanctions on rebel groups' violence against civilians and how the presence of peacekeeping influences this. This thesis argues that targeted sanctions increase a rebel group's violence against civilians through the mechanism of constrained resources and decreased capabilities to provide selective incentives to its fighters. Peacekeeping counter this mechanism by acting as a physical barrier between the combatants and the civilians, ultimately altering the cost-benefit analysis. UNITA in Angola and RUF in Sierra Leone are examined using a within-case and an across-case comparison. The findings lend mixed support to the notion that targeted sanctions increase a rebel group's violence against civilians. However, the results support the second hypothesis; peacekeeping appears to counterbalance the adverse effects of targeted sanctions on rebel groups' violence against civilians.

Sanctions are becoming an increasingly utilised tool for peacemaking and consequently, it is of importance to analyse its possible consequences. This paper aims to analyse the possible covariation between UN-targeted sanctions and the recruitment of children by rebel groups. The purpose is to answer the research question: How do UN-targeted sanctions impact rebel groups' recruitment of child soldiers? Based on rational choice theory and a consideration of previous literature, it is hypothesised that imposing UN-targeted sanctions against a rebel group increases the likelihood that said rebel group will increase their recruitment of child soldiers. Utilising a qualitative research method, including a structured focused comparison, the rebel groups UNITA and FARC were selected for empirical analysis based on Mill's method of difference. The empirical analysis finds some support for the proposed theoretical argument in the case of UNITA but conflicting evidence regarding FARC indicates that the proposed causal mechanism requires further research.

The thesis argues that non-proliferation sanctions are effective primarily by their coercive effect, that is their power to change the target’s cost/benefit ratios. It does so by contrasting and comparing two key works in sanctions literature, authored by David Baldwin and the Targeted Sanctions Consortium respectively. In the case of the UN sanctions regime against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), it concludes that the reason why no sufficient coercive effect has been apparent, is due to the lack of costs shouldered by the actors who have implemented the sanctions, as this reflects an apparent lack of commitment. This in turn does not sufficiently increase the possible cost of the DPRK, in continuing its nuclear weapons program. Therefore it is not incentivized to cancel its program.

Targeted sanctions have become increasingly utilized as conflict management tool to safeguard global peace and security. In recent years, there have been a global push to utilize this tool to specifically address conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). Yet, there is a dearth in research on how the imposition of targeted sanctions effect the prevalence of CRSV. This thesis aims to contribute to this alarmingly understudied relationship between targeted sanctions and CRSV by investigating the following research question: what impact do targeted sanctions have on the perpetration of CRSV by rebel groups? Thus, I employ a structured, focused comparison of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda to test a theoretical theory which argues that targeted sanctions may increase the prevalence of CRSV perpetrated by the targeted rebel group. The empirical findings give partial support to both the proposed hypothesis and the theorized ‘selective incentive’ casual mechanism. However, the findings also suggest less effective sanctions may result in the hypothesized increase in wartime sexual violence perpetrated by the targeted actor, while more effective, debilitating sanctions may a decrease alongside other interventions.

This thesis emphasizes the role of political risk in international business by analyzing the impact of political events on the valuation of firms. The guiding question is how governments interfere with the business interests of firms located in their own country as well as with the business interests of firms from other nations, as a consequence of the application of international sanctions. Therefore, the focus is on multi-country and multi-sector effects due to the occurrence of specific sanction events. The empirical methodology is the event-study approach, which analyzes stock market reactions to new information. The research objective is to detect abnormal stock returns across multiple markets and sectors, as a consequence of events related to the imposition of or threat of international sanctions. The empirical model of this thesis differentiates between risk-effects for firms located in the sender country (i.e., the origin of sanctions), for firms located in or specifically related to target countries (i.e., the receiver of sanctions) and firms located in third countries (i.e., countries not directly involved). There are three different cases analyzed: E.U. Economic Sanctions against African countries (2002-2005), the U.S. Steel Tariff (2002) and the Iran Sanctions Act (2007). The cases represent sanctions applied on the nationwide, sector- and firm-specific level. The event studies provide empirical evidence for the existence of political risk-effects due to sector-specific sanctions. Risk-effects are detected for firms in target countries and for firms in the sender country itself. The applied political risk framework describes how political risk affects multinational firm value and explains that it varies among firms. The impact of political risk on a firm's value depends on the risk exposure of a firm's individual business interests to it. This contributes a new perspective on political risk that emphasizes multinational and multi-sectoral effects and underlines that a specific political risk can be relevant for a variety of different international business interests. (author's abstract)

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-150) / It is increasingly becoming apparent that elections, as component parts of democratic processes, do not always guarantee a smooth transfer of power and stable democratic cultures in many contemporary polities. Whenever election outcomes are disputed, Governments of National Unity (GNU) are presented as strategic conflict prevention and resolution models. Yet, the GNU’s ability to nurture democracy in situations where it remains weak or non-existent is extremely limited. This dissertation therefore uses Zimbabwe’s case study to examine how its recent internal political turmoil had overwhelming implications for its legitimacy and democracy. Through qualitative research, the study reveals that despite partially reconciling Zimbabwe’s political protagonists, the GNU neither permanently resolved the crisis nor addressed significant related issues; thus, creating a paradox of legitimacy for the country. The dissertation concludes with recommendations for further research on matters of legitimacy in power-sharing scenarios such as Zimbabwe’s. / Political Sciences / M.A. (International politics)