“Political atlas of the modern world 2.0”: how to deal with the policy of sanctions?

“Political Atlas of the Modern World 2.0” research project as well as its predecessor provides a wide range of opportunities to reveal the structures of the modern world composed of nation-states. At the same time, the project is missing a number of phenomena of contemporary international politics. One of them is the use of the instruments of economic coercion. Above all, such instruments imply economic sanctions, i.e. unilateral restrictive measures of nation-states vis a vis each other or particular persons in finance, trade, transportation and other economic domains to achieve political goals. The question is how to deal with sanctions under the framework of “Political Atlas of the Modern World 2.0”? The key point is that sanctions might be operationalized both in terms of internal threats for a nation-state as well as the component of its foreign policy toolbox. The article highlights understanding of a concept of sanctions, reveal major methodological problems related to empirical and theoretical research of sanctions and provides options to operationalize sanctions in a set of variables. The study of sanctions policy may become a subproject within the framework of the “Political Atlas of the Modern World 2.0” to expand the main database and also to develop of individual specialized topics within the overall framework of the project.

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