ABSTRACT
How have the international community and its members approached Syrian chemical weapons issues in the context of autonomous sanction measures? The US, the EU, Switzerland, Japan, and Canada have taken autonomous sanction measures against Syria. The US began to take actions in 2005, more than five years before the uprising of the domestic conflict, while the EU and other States decided to take the same actions in 2011, after it happened. A comparative analysis indicates that these autonomous sanction measures have two major characteristics, depending upon the development of chemical weapons issues: proliferation concerns and reactions to the use of chemical weapons, and the presence of both unity (designation of common targets and a period of refraining from taking additional measures) and diversity (different levels of interest and different timing of designations) in them. A recently-launched “Chemical Weapons No Impunity!” campaign may become a useful platform and contribute to more effective implementation of autonomous sanction measures.
