Economic sanctions are a popular tool to punish a state without using armed forces and risking a military conflict. For this reason, they have been in fashion over the past few decades, and are now once again being used against Russia as a reaction to the war in Ukraine.

All of us will agree that war-mongering and human rights violations are intolerable, but how can states take morally justifiable measures to stop other states from committing such crimes? Many may now scream “Sanctions!” without considering their morally ambiguous nature first.

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