Coercion and Concession: The Relation of Sanctions and Negotiations

Keywords: : Negotiation, Sanction, Conflict Management, Escalation, Simulation

Abstract: Economic sanctions are a widely used tool in international politics to coerce another party into a more desired avenue of response. Together with negotiations, they form the corner stones of nonviolent international reaction to many geopolitical challenges. The present study analyses the relation between these two measures: sanctions and negotiations. The results show that different factors of the sanction mechanism can lead to conflict escalation. It is further argued that such an escalation can make a settlement more attractive and can lead to the acceptance of a negotiated solution, which was out of reach before. However, such an agreement can be substantially more expensive than previous negotiated agreements, which have not been accepted. The results further emphasize the importance of finding mechanisms to overcome escalation and stimulate timely negotiations.