Sanctions and economic warfare
Contemporary geopolitics increasingly employs economic tools including sanctions, trade restrictions, financial manipulation, and technological control as instruments of strategic power. This economic warfare operates across an interconnected global system, affecting civilians, corporations, and governments alike. This project charts the growing weaponization of the global economy, analyses the boundaries of their lawfulness and legitimacy, and examines the limits of economic coercion within a contested but interdependent international order.
Research outputs
- Andresen, Joshua (2026)
- Golson, Eric (2025)
- Andresen, Joshua (2024)
- Andresen, Joshua (2023)
- Golson, Eric et. al (2022) .
Project directors
Dr Joshua Andresen
Associate Professor of National Security and Foreign Relations Law
Biography
Joshua (JD, Yale; PhD, Northwestern) is an international lawyer working in national security and human rights law. His areas of expertise range from the law of armed conflict and international human rights law to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, including sanctions compliance and the regulation of cryptocurrencies and exchanges. Joshua’s recent writing has focused on legal questions that arise in modern conflict and counterterrorism operations due to power asymmetries, the geography of the battlespace, and technological developments, with influential pieces appearing in the Yale Journal of International Law, the Harvard National Security Journal, and an anthology by Oxford University Press. Given the practical focus of his work, Joshua has been called upon to advise states, provide expert opinions for international tribunals, and contribute to the work of UN Special Rapporteurs.
Prior to ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½, Joshua was Senior Policy Advisor for Europe, Russia, and Central Asia in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He was also an Attorney-Adviser at the U.S. Department of State, where he worked in the Office of the Legal Adviser for African and Near Eastern Affairs and in the Office of the Legal Adviser for United Nations Affairs. Joshua’s work at the State Department was supported by a Robina Human Rights Post-Doctoral Fellowship from Yale Law School. Joshua’s international law and human rights experience includes work at the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the High Court of Bombay. While in law school, Joshua also worked to defend people facing the death penalty with the Southern Center for Human Rights and the Equal Justice Initiative. Prior to his law and policy work, Joshua was Associate Professor of Philosophy at the American University of Beirut.
Professor Eric Golson
Professor of Economics, Economic Warfare Expert
Biography
Eric Golson is a Professor of Economics specialising in economic warfare, trade, finance, and international political economy. He has advised governments and businesses on complex geoeconomic challenges across the world, and in 2026 has been interviewed by Al Jazeera, the Financial Times, The Times, The Guardian, Newsweek, and other leading outlets on pressing global economic warfare issues.
Eric is a co-author of McGraw-Hill's undergraduate textbook Economics, now in its 13th edition. His research spans the effects of trade blockades on stock market performance, the history of economic warfare, and the strategic behaviour of small states and neutral nations. He has co-authored four books on these themes and is co-editor of a new Bloomsbury series on Neutrality, alongside Hillary Briffa (King's College London), Pascal Lottaz (Kyoto University), and Karl-Thomas Habtom Naman (Cambridge).
His current research interests include international trade warfare, business decision-making during conflict, the effectiveness of economic sanctions, military spending, and resource management in wartime contexts. In 2026, he was appointed Co-Director of ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½'s new Centre for the Study of Global Power Competition (CGPC) and remains an active member of the Centre for International Macroeconomic Studies (CIMS). He was previously a Junior Research Fellow at Oxford University (2011–2016).
An award-winning educator, Eric has a strong track record in teaching and learning leadership, education policy, student experience, and long-term academic strategy. He served as Deputy Head and Undergraduate Programme Director at ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½'s School of Economics, and is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion — particularly around neurodiversity, including dyslexia, ADHD, and autism — having conducted research into learning outcomes for neurodiverse students. Over fourteen years, he has received nine teaching awards and twenty-six nominations.
Eric holds a PhD and PGCHE from the London School of Economics, and a BA and MA from the University of Chicago. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS), an Associate Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA), a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA), and a Certified Management & Business Educator (CMBE).