Enforcing US Economic Sanctions: Why Whale Hunting Works

The authors discuss the US enforcement of economic sanctions which can have billion-dollar ramifications for companies, alter global markets, and cause or help resolve foreign policy crises. Sanctions enforcement actions taken during Barack Obama administration against major European banks, including Credit Suisse, ING Bank and BNP Paribas, resulted in billions of dollars of fines and fundamentally altered the way the global financial industry assesses the risks of doing business with sanctioned states. The US enforcement action taken recently against Chinese tech giant ZTE for violating US sanctions and strategic trade controls has also emerged as a contentious focal point in US-China relations during Donald Trump administration.