How do sanctions affect the dynamics of armed conflict? How do sanctions work? And do they succeed in addressing harm and need? Exploring such questions, Katharine and Florian speak with Delaney Simon from the International Crisis Group and Mohammad Kanfash from Utrecht University.
Cited Documents:
Kanfash, Mohammad, Sanctions as Barriers to the Work of Humanitarian Organizations in Syria in “Economic Sanctions from Havana to Baghdad: Legitimacy, Accountability, and Humanitarian Consequences,” edited by Joy Gordon. 2025
Kanfash, Mohammad, Interplay between sanctions, donor conditionality, and food insecurity in complex emergencies: the case of Syria. Disasters, 49. 2024
Kanfash, Mohammad, Starve or Surrender: Sanctions as a Siege Warfare Strategy in the Syrian Conflict. Syria Studies Journal, (15) 01. 2023
Simon, Delaney, It’s Not That Easy to Lift Sanctions on Syria, Foreign Policy, 2025.
Simon, Delaney, Rethinking UN Sanctions on Syria’s Interim Leaders, International Crisis Group, 2025.
Simon, Delaney, U.S. Sanctions Relief for Syria Is an Important Start, but Not Enough, Lawfare, 2025.
Guest Bios:
Mohammad Kanfash is a doctoral researcher at the Centre for Conflict Studies, Utrecht University, and a humanitarian practitioner with 17 years of experience in the Middle East and Europe. His work bridges academic inquiry and field practice, focusing on sanctions and their consequences for conflict-affected societies.
Delaney Simon is a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, where she researches conflict prevention and economic statecraft. She is the author of the organization’s flagship report on the impact of economic sanctions on conflict dynamics. She has worked there since 2021. From 2015 to 2021, Delaney served the United Nations in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Yemen. In those countries, she advised senior United Nations officials on political stability, conflict mitigation and humanitarian planning. Earlier in her career, she was the special assistant to Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations in New York and a researcher on conflict policy in Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries.
The Beyond Compliance Consortium is a co-productive, socio-legal research partnership that traverses the fields of international law, conflict studies, humanitarian protection work and human rights policy, and brings together these communities of scholarship and practice with people with lived experience of conflict. It is funded by UK International Development. The second season is funded by UK International Development, while the first season was funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Katharine Fortin is an Associate Professor in human rights law and international humanitarian law at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Utrecht University.
Florian Weigand is the Co-Director of the Centre on Armed Groups.
