Targeted Sanctions and Serious and Organised Crime: The Role of Political Will
December 2025
Research Paper 41
Dr. Anton Moiseienko (RUSI)
Cathy Haenlein (RUSI)
Elijah Glantz (RUSI).
SOC ACE project: Assessing the effectiveness of sanctions as a tool to disrupt serious organised crime
PUBLICATION SUMMARY
The rapid expansion of sanctions targeting serious and organised crime (SOC) - including the designation of transnational criminal networks as terrorist entities, the UK’s 2025 stand‑alone regime against organised immigration crime, and the G7’s endorsement of sanctions on migrant smuggling and human trafficking - has increased the urgency of understanding how SOC‑related sanctions are designed and implemented.
This paper reviews the existing literature and finds that political will plays a central yet under‑examined role. While often acknowledged indirectly, political will is rarely defined or analysed in depth, leaving a major gap in understanding how these sanctions are created, applied, contested and experienced.
The paper, as part of a wider project, addresses key unresolved questions: what drives governments to adopt or reject SOC‑focused sanctions regimes; how targets are chosen; how host countries respond to external sanctions; and how these responses shape the effects and overall effectiveness of sanctions. The willingness of sanctioning states to impose measures - and the political stance of the targets’ home jurisdictions - are crucial determinants of outcomes.
The paper identifies a research gap, which is compounded by the fragmented nature of the field. Most studies focus on individual crime types, meaning lessons from drug trafficking, for example, rarely inform debates on cybercrime or human trafficking. This research seeks a clearer appreciation of the diverse but siloed scholarship in this area.
RELATED PUBLICATIONS
Addressing organised crime and security sector reform (SSR) and governance: Linkages, processes, outcomes and challenges
Huma Haider
The Political Will to Measure Organised Crime: Why we need it and how to build it
Prof Christopher Blattman (University of Chicago) et al
Total Peace Policy: Between light and shadow: A framework to analyse Colombia’s comprehensive peacebuilding policy
Kyle Johnson (Conflict Response) et al