ABSTRACT

Adopting and administrating a policy such as targeted sanctions is a complex institutional decision-making process that requires a large set of actors and institutional capacity. Not only is the strategy likely to be imposed in a highly politically sensitive context, but it needs to be carried out with good timing and full legitimacy. In contrast to conventional scholarly assessments of sanctions, where there is a tendency to compare the goals of a sanctions regime with the actual performance once the regime is terminated, the aim of this chapter examines how perceptions of the different decision-making processes and institutional units are likely to shape the policy process of targeting prior to the implementing stage. In carrying out a targeted sanctions policy, there is a basic need for effective institutional co-ordination. While acknowledged in several policy studies, the complexity of sanctions co-ordination, as well as decision-making by senders, is seldom accounted for in sanctions assessment studies.