Panel 19: For Better or Worse? The Effect of External Sanctions on African States, Rebel Groups and Rulers

As a „middle road“ between „words and wars“ (Wallensteen/Staibano 2005) external sanctions are a commonly used tool of foreign policy to change the behavior of the targeted unit, to signal disapproval and to organize unity among the sanctioning countries. Sanctions have also regularly been applied against a very diverse set of African countries and actors at varying points in time. We have witnessed the sanction front against Apartheid South Africa, targeted UN-sanctions against UNITA in Angola and different rebel groups in Sierra Leone to curb trade of “conflict diamonds” as well as travel bans and asset freezes of Sudanese and Zimbabwean individuals. Recently, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Eritrea for backing Islamist insurgents in neighboring Somalia. A particular interesting recent case are the sanctions the African Union (AU) imposed on Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina and other individuals who have backed Africa’s youngest leader since he seized power. Conceptualizing sanction episodes as “two-level games” (1) being decided upon on the international or regional arena and (2) exerting effects on African states, rebel groups and rulers, we invite papers which deal with one or both of the arenas. Thus, we are interested in how African actors influence sanction episodes on the international and regional level. Second we invite contributions which deal with the political processes and the effects of sanctions of sanctioned units in Africa such as governments, rebel groups and rulers. We particularly invite papers which tackle these issues from a comparative perspective.