Sanctions and restrictive measures
On 16 October 2026, President Trump signed an Executive Order implementing the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, enacted on 18 September. There is an important distinction here that deserves some attention: what Congress decided and what…
I had been waiting for this judgment for some time. The request for a preliminary ruling from Germany, in Case C-67/25, raised a seemingly narrow question, but one with important implications for the effective enforcement of EU sanctions against Russian…
The Trump administration’s decision to allow Russian diesel imports for a limited period raises a question that I find more interesting than the immediate policy debate about energy prices or sanctions pressure on Moscow. Can the executive branch use an…
The Graham Act, Trump’s decision of 9 October 2026, and the politics of sanctions exemptions 9 October 2026 — Legal and policy analysis Barely three weeks after the enactment of one of the most far-reaching US sanctions statutes directed at…
Switzerland’s vote on 27 September 2026 deserves some reflection beyond the referendum result itself. With 70.16% of voters rejecting the popular initiative to “Safeguard Swiss Neutrality”, and a majority voting against it in all 26 cantons, the outcome was remarkably…
The European Union’s response to Russian hybrid activities has developed into a distinct sanctions regime with an increasingly broad reach. Rather than focusing exclusively on Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, the framework addresses forms of destabilisation that operate across the…
Anyone studying economic security today faces a fundamental question: when does economic interdependence become a weapon? Edward Fishman’s “How to Fight an Economic War” addresses this question head-on, offering a sharp analysis of how globalization has been transformed from a…
One of the persistent challenges in studying international security is understanding how the UN’s counter-terrorism architecture actually works—not in theory, but in the overlapping, sometimes redundant network of bodies that has grown since 2001. The United Nations addresses the threat…
What happens when a military strike exposes the fragility of the entire global energy architecture? The joint U.S.–Israeli strike on Iran at the end of February 2026 has answered that question with uncomfortable clarity: what initially appeared as a regional…
How much independence is too much? This is a question that runs through EU institutional law, from the European Central Bank to the data protection authorities created under the GDPR. Independent authorities are public bodies that exercise regulatory, supervisory, or…
Natalie Alkiviadou’s presentation highlights how freedom of expression, a cornerstone of democracy, is currently facing political “weaponization” and an inconsistent approach from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The tension she identifies is one that anyone working at the intersection…
