Alternatives to avoid war? Sanctions and embargos.

Last Project Week of the Academic Year 2021 – 2022

Did you know that sanctions are measures countries take to prevent certain types of activities? They are a step taken to change the behavior of others without the use of force, hence why they are the alternative to going to war. We have recently seen an example with the current war against Ukraine, and as a result sanctions were imposed on Russia. Countries don’t want to get involved in this war, and the first move was to but a partial embargo on Russian oil.

To further understand this topic we invited a sanction consultant as a guest speaker, Martijn Feldbrugge, who specializes in the (compliance) discipline of sanctions and export controls. Martijn gave the students a thorough overview of who is involved in sanctions, why are sanctions imposed, why one should comply, and the difference between sanctions.

The purpose of this project week is to understand, analyze and evaluate embargos and sanctions from a managerial and economic perspective. As a final component of Project Week, students were organized into teams and asked to research and present the current status of Globalisation, what role the Comparative Advantage plays, and analyze how the three are connected in the context of the UN Sustainability and Development Goals.