How to Study the Policy of Sanctions? The Vision of Empirical Research

Abstract

Scholars worldwide have amassed a wealth of knowledge on the use of economic sanctions, relying on either the analysis of large datasets or the examination of particular cases. The extensive sanctions levied against Russia have spurred research into their implementation and impact among Russian scholars, necessitating impartial empirical research. This demand raises a number of epistemological questions, such as what the strategy for understanding sanctions empirically should be, how to handle data and its processing, and what implications the existing literature, both domestically and abroad, has for approaching empirical research on sanctions. The crux of the matter is the generation of quantitative datasets of multiple sanctions events and cases, which serves as an essential starting point for empirical research. This approach helps to differentiate between “normal” and “deviant” cases, thereby justifying further sampling of cases for in-depth qualitative analysis. The article vividly illustrates this point by relying on the author’s databases on sanctions events, U. S. government enforcement actions, and U.S. Congress legislation processes on sanctions.