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Global Governance Centre
27 September 2021

New publications on the Bombs, Banks and Sanctions project

Four new publications linked with the Bombs, Banks and Sanctions project have been published in 2021.

The Bombs, Banks and Sanctions project is producing a landmark study of the emergent transnational legal order of nuclear nonproliferation.

The project recently saw the publications of the following four articles and book chapters: 

Abstract: COVAX, the global initiative on COVID-19 vaccines, has set the target of achieving a COVID-19 vaccination coverage of up to 30% of the population of 135 countries in 2 years. Here, we argue that COVAX should anticipate important and unforeseen challenges with regard to sanctioned countries. For those, COVAX needs to provide a higher percentage of the vaccines. Otherwise, the problems of vaccination will linger, risking the advent of new variants and preventing an efective global response in reigning the pandemic under control.

Abstract: Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the revelation of Iran’s secret nuclear programme, North American and European government officials and those working in law enforcement began emphasizing the importance of financial datamining in combating terrorism and nuclear proliferation. Law enforcement and regulators came to view financial information as far more reliable than other forms of intelligence when it came to conducting post-hoc analysis of sanctions violations and convincing global banks that the risks of detection were too high for them not to care about the international community’s efforts to combat either terrorism or nuclear proliferation. This chapter goes back over this narrative, by exploring the implications of banks adopting US based financial data-management software programs in their affiliates.

Abstract: This chapter aims to conduct an empirical review of the remedies and procedures for foreign unilateral sanctions-related disputes in China, including its two special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau. Unilateral sanctions are limited hereafter to those sanctions imposed unilaterally by the major powers like the US or EU for coercive offensive or defensive strategic objectives. They are not supported by United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, they are sometimes adopted contrary to provisions of specific international treaties, and they invariably amount to unilateral and extraterritorial sanctions.

Abstract: The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, is an important milestone in the efforts to address the international community’s concerns about the nuclear programme of the Islamic Republic of Iran. While the ultimate fate of the JCPOA is unknown at the time of writing, it is a reference point for future nuclear agreements – as a model to emulate, a poster child for what to avoid, or (more likely) a mixture of both.

 

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