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Clara Portela

Biographic Data

ID1092804
NAMEClara Portela
GIVEN NAMESClara
FAMILY NAMEPortela
SIGNATUREPORTELA C
AFFILIATIONSUniversitat de València
ORCID0000-0001-9289-3245
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS24
TOTAL CITATIONS110
AUTHOR COUNT24
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2005
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX7
  • Does CFSP co-ordination foster convergence? Voting behavior on nuclear weapons at the UN General Assembly

    Clara Portela, Michal Onderco et al.•ARTICLE•Arms Control•2025•References: 30

    Although the European Union (EU) has sought to promote the approximation of the foreign policy positions of member states since it established its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) with the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, the impact of this intergovernmental forum has long been questioned. Recent developments putting the CFSP under strain such as the weakening transatlantic link, Russian attempts to undermine EU foreign policy unity, and th…

  • The Global South and the contestation of unilateral sanctions against Russia

    Open Access•Stefano Palestini, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Cooperation and Conflict•2025•Cited by: 1•References: 18

    States from the Global South have long advanced normative claims against the legitimacy of unilateral sanctions. These arguments have been routinely voiced through UN General Assembly Resolutions, shaping a conventional discourse of contestation of unilateral sanctions. We interrogate whether this discourse was challenged by the deployment of unilateral sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leading to adjustments. We carry out a …

  • Money Talks? The Effectiveness of Sanctions in the ‘Rule of Law’ Conflict in the European Union

    Open Access•Adam Holesch, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•JCMS Journal of Common Market…•2025•Cited by: 9•References: 35

    The European Union (EU) responded to democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland by implementing a sanctions toolbox, which includes the Article 7 Treaty on European Union (TEU) mechanism, infringement procedures and funding conditionality. Whilst the Article 7 TEU procedure has been extensively studies and found to be ineffective, the efficacy of infringement procedures and the recently introduced funding conditionality – comprising the Conditi…

  • Aid Sanctions and Hybrid Regimes

    Clara Portela, Juan S Mora-Sanguinetti•ARTICLE•The Journal of Development Studies•2025•References: 72

  • Sanctions effectiveness, development and regime type. Are aid suspensions and economic sanctions alike

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Juan S Mora-Sanguinetti•ARTICLE•World Development•2023•Cited by: 4•References: 32

    The efficacy of international sanctions in bringing about compliance with the goals of the sender is of interest to both International Relations (IR) and development scholars. Yet, aid suspensions receive less attention in sanctions research than economic sanctions, which may be biasing our understanding of sanctions efficacy. Since recent research has established that different autocratic types display diverging degrees of resilience to sanction…

  • Global Governance From Below: Regional Sanctions as Drivers of UN Sanctions

    Open Access•Inken Von Borzyskowski, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Journal of Conflict Resolution•2023•Cited by: 8•References: 59

    The imposition of sanctions by the UN Security Council (UNSC) is notoriously selective. Many crises have qualified for UNSC sanctions by endangering peace and security, yet the UN has imposed sanctions in only a few. Selectivity in UNSC sanctions is conventionally explained by conflict intensity or the interests of the Council’s permanent members. Complementing these accounts, we document a third explanation: pre-existing sanctions by regional or…

  • Beyond Foreign Policy? EU Sanctions at the Intersection of Development, Trade, and CFSP

    Open Access•Katharina L Meissner, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Politics and Governance•2022•Cited by: 2•References: 16

    In the wake of unsettling conflicts and democratic backsliding, states and organisations increasingly respond with sanctions. The European Union (EU) is one of them: Brussels makes use of the entire toolbox in its foreign policy, and its sanctions appear in different forms—diplomatic measures, travel bans, financial bans, or various forms of economic restrictions. Yet, there is little debate between different strands in the literature on EU sanct…

  • The Design and Impacts of Individual Sanctions: Evidence From Elites in Côte d’Ivoire and Zimbabwe

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Thijs Van Laer•ARTICLE•Politics and Governance•2022•Cited by: 3•References: 10

    Since the 1990s, sanctions senders like the European Union, the United States, and the United Nations have been imposing visa bans and asset freezes on individuals as a key element of their sanctions packages. Notwithstanding the growing centrality that individual sanctions have acquired in international sanctions practice, little is known about the impact of sanctions listings on designees. Some researchers have scrutinised targeting choices, wh…

  • The Evolution of Databases in the Age of Targeted Sanctions

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Alain Charron•ARTICLE•International Studies Review•2022•Cited by: 3•References: 26

    Databases constitute key research tools in sanctions scholarship. Over the past few years, we have witnessed a proliferation of sanctions databases: while only a single dataset was available until 2009, this number had increased to five by 2020; thus, the choice has more than doubled in less than a decade. This essay assesses the evolution observed. It reviews the five major datasets, comparing some of their basic choices, and evaluates them alon…

  • External drivers of EU differentiated cooperation: How change in the nuclear nonproliferation regime affects member states alignment

    Open Access•Michal Onderco, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Arms Control•2022•Cited by: 7•References: 13

    Since its establishment, the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) has strived to increase convergence among EU member states. Yet, convergence remains elusive and scholars have started to explain the emergence of differentiated cooperation resulting from multiple internal EU crises. We posit that the convergence in the EU member states with respect to nuclear weapons has been fundamentally altered by the humanitarian turn to nuclear disarmam…

  • UN Security Council Sanctions and Mediation in Libya: Synergy or Obstruction

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Jean-Louis Romanet Perroux•ARTICLE•Global Governance A Review of…•2022•Cited by: 3•References: 3

    The UN frequently employs sanctions on the same conflicts where it attempts mediation. While both efforts carry a UN stamp, they follow different political logics that are not always coherent with each other: sanctions are enacted by the UN Security Council, while mediation is led by a special representative/envoy of the UN Secretary-General, often on the basis of a Security Council mandate. This article explores two UN interventions in Libya tha…

  • EU-Sanktionen gegen Russland: Ein Überblick. A Preliminary Assessment

    Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Osteuropa•2021

    In response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the EU adopted three packages of sanctions. It suspended negotiations and meetings with Russia’s government, imposed entry bans and froze the bank accounts of individuals, and ordered sectoral economic sanctions. The decision required unanimity. Despite political differences over Russia policy, unity on the necessity of sanctions holds sway among the EU member states. But there is disagreement over th…

  • Consensus against all odds: Explaining the persistence of EU sanctions on Russia

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Paulina Pospieszna et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of European Integration•2020•Cited by: 12•References: 21

    In response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine in 2014, the EU introduced sanctions on Moscow. Despite increasing polarisation among member states after imposition, the sanctions package was consistently renewed. How can sanctions persistence be explained? While scholarly accounts highlight German leadership, commitment to norms, and policymakers’ engagement, the EU’s ability to uphold the sanctions in the face of uneven support among member states r…

  • The art of sanctions: A View From the Field

    Clara Portela•ARTICLE•International Affairs•2019•Cited by: 2

    Sanctions scholarship is peculiar. On the one hand, it tends to focus on answering the questions most relevant to policy-makers. Researchers investigate when sanctions ‘work’ and discuss how to measure their success. On the other hand, the subject hardly entertains any dialogue with policy circles. Academic assumptions and findings are neither endorsed nor disproved by those who design and manage sanctions instruments. As a book for practitioners…

  • One Swallow Does Not Make Spring: A Critical Juncture Perspective on the EU Sanctions in Response to the Arab Spring

    Andreas Boogaerts, Clara Portela et al.•ARTICLE•Mediterranean Politics•2016•Cited by: 3•References: 13

    This article examines to what extent the Arab Spring constitutes a critical juncture – a major turning point – for the EU’s sanctions policy towards Egypt, Libya, Syria and Tunisia. Based on a multidimensional critical juncture operationalization, we find that the Arab Spring only constitutes such a turning point for the EU’s sanctions policy towards Syria. Both the level and nature of measures differ substantially from previous years. By contras…

  • Are European Union sanctions “targeted”

    Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Cambridge Review of International…•2016•Cited by: 10•References: 11

    The emergence of targeted sanctions in the mid-1990s was due to the humanitarian impact of embargoes, which were deemed unacceptable and compelled senders to shift to measures designed to affect only wrongdoers. Twenty years on, the present paper considers the extent to which autonomous sanctions are designed to affect those individuals and elites responsible for the behaviour the EU aims to condemn. How faithful has the EU remained to this conce…

  • Introduction: The United Nations and targeted sanctions

    Open Access•Alain Charron, Andrea Charron et al.•ARTICLE•International Affairs•2015•Cited by: 1

    Mandatory United Nation (UN) sanctions imposed against Iraq, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Haiti in the 1990s gave rise to strong criticisms because of their comprehensive nature and the harm inflicted on innocent civilians. Chastened, the international community, led by like-minded, mainly western states, reformed the instrument of sanctions and adopted ‘targeted sanctions’—measures designed to address the peace spoilers but limit damag…

  • The UN, regional sanctions and Africa

    Open Access•Alain Charron, Andrea Charron et al.•ARTICLE•International Affairs•2015•Cited by: 6

    Sanctions are frequently applied by the UN Security Council (UNSC) as well as regional organizations. While the objectives sought often vary, a frequent commonality is that they target African states. Indeed, Africa is the most frequently targeted continent by the UNSC and regional organisations including the African Union, Economic Community of West African States and the European Union. However, little attention has been paid to the confluence …

  • Sanctions under the EU Generalised System of Preferences and foreign policy: Coherence by Accident

    Clara Portela, Jan Orbie•ARTICLE•Contemporary Politics•2014•Cited by: 18•References: 7

    This article investigates the relationship between the European Union's withdrawal of trade benefits for developing countries under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) and its sanctions under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Our expectation is that GSP withdrawals and CFSP sanctions will not cohere. However, our research reveals that GSP suspension has been coherent with CFSP sanctions when the latter exist prior to the deci…

  • The EU Polity and Foreign Policy Coherence

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Kolja Raube•ARTICLE•Journal of Contemporary European…•2011•Cited by: 7•References: 4

    The present article examines the character of the European Union (EU) as a polity by looking at the mechanisms it employs to ensure the coherence of its foreign policies. It first contrasts three ideal polity types. The methods chosen to ensure coherence in foreign policy actions differ according to each of the three polity types. The article then explores how the EU ensures coherence through institutional reform, and subsequently looks in detail…

  • The European Union and Belarus: Sanctions and partnership

    Open Access•Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Comparative European Politics•2011•Cited by: 1•References: 11

  • EU Defence Integration and Nuclear Weapons: A Common Deterrent for Europe

    Open Access•Ursula Jasper, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Security Dialogue•2010•References: 4

    Nuclear weapons remain the unquestioned core of the defence postures of both France and the United Kingdom. At the same time, the European Union is progressively enhancing its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), notably through the establishment of a European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Yet, despite evident progress in the CFSP, whose ultimate purpose is to lead to a ‘common defence policy’, EU member-states still deal with nuclear…

  • National Implementation of United Nations Sanctions: Towards Fragmentation

    Open Access•Clara Portela•ARTICLE•International Journal Canada s…•2010•Cited by: 3

    The implementation of the United Nations council sanctions by member states has gained increasing importance in the sanctions debate over the past 15 years. Having remained long neglected in academic circles, the sanctions review process sponsored by the Swiss, German, and Swedish governments over the past decade has been instrumental in putting the question of implementation at the centre of the sanctions research agenda.1 One of the main innova…

  • Where and why does the EU impose sanctions

    Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Politique européenne•2005•Cited by: 7•References: 4

    This article explores whether the EU behaves differently as a sanctioning actor towards its geographic vicinity than to regions further afield. It looks at the security relevance of the objectives advanced by sanctions, as well as the interplay between objectives and the geographic proximity of the targets to the EU in its autonomous sanctions practice (1987-2003). It identifies a pattern of geographic differentiation: Eastern Europe has been tar…

  • Sanctions under the EU Generalised System of Preferences and foreign policy: Coherence by Accident

    Clara Portela, Jan Orbie•ARTICLE•Contemporary Politics•2014•Cited by: 18•References: 7

    This article investigates the relationship between the European Union's withdrawal of trade benefits for developing countries under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) and its sanctions under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Our expectation is that GSP withdrawals and CFSP sanctions will not cohere. However, our research reveals that GSP suspension has been coherent with CFSP sanctions when the latter exist prior to the deci…

  • Consensus against all odds: Explaining the persistence of EU sanctions on Russia

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Paulina Pospieszna et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of European Integration•2020•Cited by: 12•References: 21

    In response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine in 2014, the EU introduced sanctions on Moscow. Despite increasing polarisation among member states after imposition, the sanctions package was consistently renewed. How can sanctions persistence be explained? While scholarly accounts highlight German leadership, commitment to norms, and policymakers’ engagement, the EU’s ability to uphold the sanctions in the face of uneven support among member states r…

  • Are European Union sanctions “targeted”

    Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Cambridge Review of International…•2016•Cited by: 10•References: 11

    The emergence of targeted sanctions in the mid-1990s was due to the humanitarian impact of embargoes, which were deemed unacceptable and compelled senders to shift to measures designed to affect only wrongdoers. Twenty years on, the present paper considers the extent to which autonomous sanctions are designed to affect those individuals and elites responsible for the behaviour the EU aims to condemn. How faithful has the EU remained to this conce…

  • Money Talks? The Effectiveness of Sanctions in the ‘Rule of Law’ Conflict in the European Union

    Open Access•Adam Holesch, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•JCMS Journal of Common Market…•2025•Cited by: 9•References: 35

    The European Union (EU) responded to democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland by implementing a sanctions toolbox, which includes the Article 7 Treaty on European Union (TEU) mechanism, infringement procedures and funding conditionality. Whilst the Article 7 TEU procedure has been extensively studies and found to be ineffective, the efficacy of infringement procedures and the recently introduced funding conditionality – comprising the Conditi…

  • Global Governance From Below: Regional Sanctions as Drivers of UN Sanctions

    Open Access•Inken Von Borzyskowski, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Journal of Conflict Resolution•2023•Cited by: 8•References: 59

    The imposition of sanctions by the UN Security Council (UNSC) is notoriously selective. Many crises have qualified for UNSC sanctions by endangering peace and security, yet the UN has imposed sanctions in only a few. Selectivity in UNSC sanctions is conventionally explained by conflict intensity or the interests of the Council’s permanent members. Complementing these accounts, we document a third explanation: pre-existing sanctions by regional or…

  • External drivers of EU differentiated cooperation: How change in the nuclear nonproliferation regime affects member states alignment

    Open Access•Michal Onderco, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Arms Control•2022•Cited by: 7•References: 13

    Since its establishment, the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) has strived to increase convergence among EU member states. Yet, convergence remains elusive and scholars have started to explain the emergence of differentiated cooperation resulting from multiple internal EU crises. We posit that the convergence in the EU member states with respect to nuclear weapons has been fundamentally altered by the humanitarian turn to nuclear disarmam…

  • The EU Polity and Foreign Policy Coherence

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Kolja Raube•ARTICLE•Journal of Contemporary European…•2011•Cited by: 7•References: 4

    The present article examines the character of the European Union (EU) as a polity by looking at the mechanisms it employs to ensure the coherence of its foreign policies. It first contrasts three ideal polity types. The methods chosen to ensure coherence in foreign policy actions differ according to each of the three polity types. The article then explores how the EU ensures coherence through institutional reform, and subsequently looks in detail…

  • Where and why does the EU impose sanctions

    Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Politique européenne•2005•Cited by: 7•References: 4

    This article explores whether the EU behaves differently as a sanctioning actor towards its geographic vicinity than to regions further afield. It looks at the security relevance of the objectives advanced by sanctions, as well as the interplay between objectives and the geographic proximity of the targets to the EU in its autonomous sanctions practice (1987-2003). It identifies a pattern of geographic differentiation: Eastern Europe has been tar…

  • The UN, regional sanctions and Africa

    Open Access•Alain Charron, Andrea Charron et al.•ARTICLE•International Affairs•2015•Cited by: 6

    Sanctions are frequently applied by the UN Security Council (UNSC) as well as regional organizations. While the objectives sought often vary, a frequent commonality is that they target African states. Indeed, Africa is the most frequently targeted continent by the UNSC and regional organisations including the African Union, Economic Community of West African States and the European Union. However, little attention has been paid to the confluence …

  • Sanctions effectiveness, development and regime type. Are aid suspensions and economic sanctions alike

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Juan S Mora-Sanguinetti•ARTICLE•World Development•2023•Cited by: 4•References: 32

    The efficacy of international sanctions in bringing about compliance with the goals of the sender is of interest to both International Relations (IR) and development scholars. Yet, aid suspensions receive less attention in sanctions research than economic sanctions, which may be biasing our understanding of sanctions efficacy. Since recent research has established that different autocratic types display diverging degrees of resilience to sanction…

  • The Design and Impacts of Individual Sanctions: Evidence From Elites in Côte d’Ivoire and Zimbabwe

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Thijs Van Laer•ARTICLE•Politics and Governance•2022•Cited by: 3•References: 10

    Since the 1990s, sanctions senders like the European Union, the United States, and the United Nations have been imposing visa bans and asset freezes on individuals as a key element of their sanctions packages. Notwithstanding the growing centrality that individual sanctions have acquired in international sanctions practice, little is known about the impact of sanctions listings on designees. Some researchers have scrutinised targeting choices, wh…

  • The Evolution of Databases in the Age of Targeted Sanctions

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Alain Charron•ARTICLE•International Studies Review•2022•Cited by: 3•References: 26

    Databases constitute key research tools in sanctions scholarship. Over the past few years, we have witnessed a proliferation of sanctions databases: while only a single dataset was available until 2009, this number had increased to five by 2020; thus, the choice has more than doubled in less than a decade. This essay assesses the evolution observed. It reviews the five major datasets, comparing some of their basic choices, and evaluates them alon…

  • UN Security Council Sanctions and Mediation in Libya: Synergy or Obstruction

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Jean-Louis Romanet Perroux•ARTICLE•Global Governance A Review of…•2022•Cited by: 3•References: 3

    The UN frequently employs sanctions on the same conflicts where it attempts mediation. While both efforts carry a UN stamp, they follow different political logics that are not always coherent with each other: sanctions are enacted by the UN Security Council, while mediation is led by a special representative/envoy of the UN Secretary-General, often on the basis of a Security Council mandate. This article explores two UN interventions in Libya tha…

  • One Swallow Does Not Make Spring: A Critical Juncture Perspective on the EU Sanctions in Response to the Arab Spring

    Andreas Boogaerts, Clara Portela et al.•ARTICLE•Mediterranean Politics•2016•Cited by: 3•References: 13

    This article examines to what extent the Arab Spring constitutes a critical juncture – a major turning point – for the EU’s sanctions policy towards Egypt, Libya, Syria and Tunisia. Based on a multidimensional critical juncture operationalization, we find that the Arab Spring only constitutes such a turning point for the EU’s sanctions policy towards Syria. Both the level and nature of measures differ substantially from previous years. By contras…

  • National Implementation of United Nations Sanctions: Towards Fragmentation

    Open Access•Clara Portela•ARTICLE•International Journal Canada s…•2010•Cited by: 3

    The implementation of the United Nations council sanctions by member states has gained increasing importance in the sanctions debate over the past 15 years. Having remained long neglected in academic circles, the sanctions review process sponsored by the Swiss, German, and Swedish governments over the past decade has been instrumental in putting the question of implementation at the centre of the sanctions research agenda.1 One of the main innova…

  • Beyond Foreign Policy? EU Sanctions at the Intersection of Development, Trade, and CFSP

    Open Access•Katharina L Meissner, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Politics and Governance•2022•Cited by: 2•References: 16

    In the wake of unsettling conflicts and democratic backsliding, states and organisations increasingly respond with sanctions. The European Union (EU) is one of them: Brussels makes use of the entire toolbox in its foreign policy, and its sanctions appear in different forms—diplomatic measures, travel bans, financial bans, or various forms of economic restrictions. Yet, there is little debate between different strands in the literature on EU sanct…

  • The art of sanctions: A View From the Field

    Clara Portela•ARTICLE•International Affairs•2019•Cited by: 2

    Sanctions scholarship is peculiar. On the one hand, it tends to focus on answering the questions most relevant to policy-makers. Researchers investigate when sanctions ‘work’ and discuss how to measure their success. On the other hand, the subject hardly entertains any dialogue with policy circles. Academic assumptions and findings are neither endorsed nor disproved by those who design and manage sanctions instruments. As a book for practitioners…

  • The Global South and the contestation of unilateral sanctions against Russia

    Open Access•Stefano Palestini, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Cooperation and Conflict•2025•Cited by: 1•References: 18

    States from the Global South have long advanced normative claims against the legitimacy of unilateral sanctions. These arguments have been routinely voiced through UN General Assembly Resolutions, shaping a conventional discourse of contestation of unilateral sanctions. We interrogate whether this discourse was challenged by the deployment of unilateral sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leading to adjustments. We carry out a …

  • Introduction: The United Nations and targeted sanctions

    Open Access•Alain Charron, Andrea Charron et al.•ARTICLE•International Affairs•2015•Cited by: 1

    Mandatory United Nation (UN) sanctions imposed against Iraq, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Haiti in the 1990s gave rise to strong criticisms because of their comprehensive nature and the harm inflicted on innocent civilians. Chastened, the international community, led by like-minded, mainly western states, reformed the instrument of sanctions and adopted ‘targeted sanctions’—measures designed to address the peace spoilers but limit damag…

  • The European Union and Belarus: Sanctions and partnership

    Open Access•Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Comparative European Politics•2011•Cited by: 1•References: 11

  • Where and why does the EU impose sanctions

    Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Politique européenne•2005•Cited by: 7•References: 4

    This article explores whether the EU behaves differently as a sanctioning actor towards its geographic vicinity than to regions further afield. It looks at the security relevance of the objectives advanced by sanctions, as well as the interplay between objectives and the geographic proximity of the targets to the EU in its autonomous sanctions practice (1987-2003). It identifies a pattern of geographic differentiation: Eastern Europe has been tar…

  • EU Defence Integration and Nuclear Weapons: A Common Deterrent for Europe

    Open Access•Ursula Jasper, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Security Dialogue•2010•References: 4

    Nuclear weapons remain the unquestioned core of the defence postures of both France and the United Kingdom. At the same time, the European Union is progressively enhancing its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), notably through the establishment of a European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Yet, despite evident progress in the CFSP, whose ultimate purpose is to lead to a ‘common defence policy’, EU member-states still deal with nuclear…

  • National Implementation of United Nations Sanctions: Towards Fragmentation

    Open Access•Clara Portela•ARTICLE•International Journal Canada s…•2010•Cited by: 3

    The implementation of the United Nations council sanctions by member states has gained increasing importance in the sanctions debate over the past 15 years. Having remained long neglected in academic circles, the sanctions review process sponsored by the Swiss, German, and Swedish governments over the past decade has been instrumental in putting the question of implementation at the centre of the sanctions research agenda.1 One of the main innova…

  • The EU Polity and Foreign Policy Coherence

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Kolja Raube•ARTICLE•Journal of Contemporary European…•2011•Cited by: 7•References: 4

    The present article examines the character of the European Union (EU) as a polity by looking at the mechanisms it employs to ensure the coherence of its foreign policies. It first contrasts three ideal polity types. The methods chosen to ensure coherence in foreign policy actions differ according to each of the three polity types. The article then explores how the EU ensures coherence through institutional reform, and subsequently looks in detail…

  • The European Union and Belarus: Sanctions and partnership

    Open Access•Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Comparative European Politics•2011•Cited by: 1•References: 11

  • Sanctions under the EU Generalised System of Preferences and foreign policy: Coherence by Accident

    Clara Portela, Jan Orbie•ARTICLE•Contemporary Politics•2014•Cited by: 18•References: 7

    This article investigates the relationship between the European Union's withdrawal of trade benefits for developing countries under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) and its sanctions under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Our expectation is that GSP withdrawals and CFSP sanctions will not cohere. However, our research reveals that GSP suspension has been coherent with CFSP sanctions when the latter exist prior to the deci…

  • Introduction: The United Nations and targeted sanctions

    Open Access•Alain Charron, Andrea Charron et al.•ARTICLE•International Affairs•2015•Cited by: 1

    Mandatory United Nation (UN) sanctions imposed against Iraq, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Haiti in the 1990s gave rise to strong criticisms because of their comprehensive nature and the harm inflicted on innocent civilians. Chastened, the international community, led by like-minded, mainly western states, reformed the instrument of sanctions and adopted ‘targeted sanctions’—measures designed to address the peace spoilers but limit damag…

  • The UN, regional sanctions and Africa

    Open Access•Alain Charron, Andrea Charron et al.•ARTICLE•International Affairs•2015•Cited by: 6

    Sanctions are frequently applied by the UN Security Council (UNSC) as well as regional organizations. While the objectives sought often vary, a frequent commonality is that they target African states. Indeed, Africa is the most frequently targeted continent by the UNSC and regional organisations including the African Union, Economic Community of West African States and the European Union. However, little attention has been paid to the confluence …

  • One Swallow Does Not Make Spring: A Critical Juncture Perspective on the EU Sanctions in Response to the Arab Spring

    Andreas Boogaerts, Clara Portela et al.•ARTICLE•Mediterranean Politics•2016•Cited by: 3•References: 13

    This article examines to what extent the Arab Spring constitutes a critical juncture – a major turning point – for the EU’s sanctions policy towards Egypt, Libya, Syria and Tunisia. Based on a multidimensional critical juncture operationalization, we find that the Arab Spring only constitutes such a turning point for the EU’s sanctions policy towards Syria. Both the level and nature of measures differ substantially from previous years. By contras…

  • Are European Union sanctions “targeted”

    Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Cambridge Review of International…•2016•Cited by: 10•References: 11

    The emergence of targeted sanctions in the mid-1990s was due to the humanitarian impact of embargoes, which were deemed unacceptable and compelled senders to shift to measures designed to affect only wrongdoers. Twenty years on, the present paper considers the extent to which autonomous sanctions are designed to affect those individuals and elites responsible for the behaviour the EU aims to condemn. How faithful has the EU remained to this conce…

  • The art of sanctions: A View From the Field

    Clara Portela•ARTICLE•International Affairs•2019•Cited by: 2

    Sanctions scholarship is peculiar. On the one hand, it tends to focus on answering the questions most relevant to policy-makers. Researchers investigate when sanctions ‘work’ and discuss how to measure their success. On the other hand, the subject hardly entertains any dialogue with policy circles. Academic assumptions and findings are neither endorsed nor disproved by those who design and manage sanctions instruments. As a book for practitioners…

  • Consensus against all odds: Explaining the persistence of EU sanctions on Russia

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Paulina Pospieszna et al.•ARTICLE•Journal of European Integration•2020•Cited by: 12•References: 21

    In response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine in 2014, the EU introduced sanctions on Moscow. Despite increasing polarisation among member states after imposition, the sanctions package was consistently renewed. How can sanctions persistence be explained? While scholarly accounts highlight German leadership, commitment to norms, and policymakers’ engagement, the EU’s ability to uphold the sanctions in the face of uneven support among member states r…

  • EU-Sanktionen gegen Russland: Ein Überblick. A Preliminary Assessment

    Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Osteuropa•2021

    In response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the EU adopted three packages of sanctions. It suspended negotiations and meetings with Russia’s government, imposed entry bans and froze the bank accounts of individuals, and ordered sectoral economic sanctions. The decision required unanimity. Despite political differences over Russia policy, unity on the necessity of sanctions holds sway among the EU member states. But there is disagreement over th…

  • Beyond Foreign Policy? EU Sanctions at the Intersection of Development, Trade, and CFSP

    Open Access•Katharina L Meissner, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Politics and Governance•2022•Cited by: 2•References: 16

    In the wake of unsettling conflicts and democratic backsliding, states and organisations increasingly respond with sanctions. The European Union (EU) is one of them: Brussels makes use of the entire toolbox in its foreign policy, and its sanctions appear in different forms—diplomatic measures, travel bans, financial bans, or various forms of economic restrictions. Yet, there is little debate between different strands in the literature on EU sanct…

  • The Design and Impacts of Individual Sanctions: Evidence From Elites in Côte d’Ivoire and Zimbabwe

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Thijs Van Laer•ARTICLE•Politics and Governance•2022•Cited by: 3•References: 10

    Since the 1990s, sanctions senders like the European Union, the United States, and the United Nations have been imposing visa bans and asset freezes on individuals as a key element of their sanctions packages. Notwithstanding the growing centrality that individual sanctions have acquired in international sanctions practice, little is known about the impact of sanctions listings on designees. Some researchers have scrutinised targeting choices, wh…

  • The Evolution of Databases in the Age of Targeted Sanctions

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Alain Charron•ARTICLE•International Studies Review•2022•Cited by: 3•References: 26

    Databases constitute key research tools in sanctions scholarship. Over the past few years, we have witnessed a proliferation of sanctions databases: while only a single dataset was available until 2009, this number had increased to five by 2020; thus, the choice has more than doubled in less than a decade. This essay assesses the evolution observed. It reviews the five major datasets, comparing some of their basic choices, and evaluates them alon…

  • External drivers of EU differentiated cooperation: How change in the nuclear nonproliferation regime affects member states alignment

    Open Access•Michal Onderco, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Arms Control•2022•Cited by: 7•References: 13

    Since its establishment, the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) has strived to increase convergence among EU member states. Yet, convergence remains elusive and scholars have started to explain the emergence of differentiated cooperation resulting from multiple internal EU crises. We posit that the convergence in the EU member states with respect to nuclear weapons has been fundamentally altered by the humanitarian turn to nuclear disarmam…

  • UN Security Council Sanctions and Mediation in Libya: Synergy or Obstruction

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Jean-Louis Romanet Perroux•ARTICLE•Global Governance A Review of…•2022•Cited by: 3•References: 3

    The UN frequently employs sanctions on the same conflicts where it attempts mediation. While both efforts carry a UN stamp, they follow different political logics that are not always coherent with each other: sanctions are enacted by the UN Security Council, while mediation is led by a special representative/envoy of the UN Secretary-General, often on the basis of a Security Council mandate. This article explores two UN interventions in Libya tha…

  • Sanctions effectiveness, development and regime type. Are aid suspensions and economic sanctions alike

    Open Access•Clara Portela, Juan S Mora-Sanguinetti•ARTICLE•World Development•2023•Cited by: 4•References: 32

    The efficacy of international sanctions in bringing about compliance with the goals of the sender is of interest to both International Relations (IR) and development scholars. Yet, aid suspensions receive less attention in sanctions research than economic sanctions, which may be biasing our understanding of sanctions efficacy. Since recent research has established that different autocratic types display diverging degrees of resilience to sanction…

  • Global Governance From Below: Regional Sanctions as Drivers of UN Sanctions

    Open Access•Inken Von Borzyskowski, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Journal of Conflict Resolution•2023•Cited by: 8•References: 59

    The imposition of sanctions by the UN Security Council (UNSC) is notoriously selective. Many crises have qualified for UNSC sanctions by endangering peace and security, yet the UN has imposed sanctions in only a few. Selectivity in UNSC sanctions is conventionally explained by conflict intensity or the interests of the Council’s permanent members. Complementing these accounts, we document a third explanation: pre-existing sanctions by regional or…

  • Does CFSP co-ordination foster convergence? Voting behavior on nuclear weapons at the UN General Assembly

    Clara Portela, Michal Onderco et al.•ARTICLE•Arms Control•2025•References: 30

    Although the European Union (EU) has sought to promote the approximation of the foreign policy positions of member states since it established its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) with the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, the impact of this intergovernmental forum has long been questioned. Recent developments putting the CFSP under strain such as the weakening transatlantic link, Russian attempts to undermine EU foreign policy unity, and th…

  • The Global South and the contestation of unilateral sanctions against Russia

    Open Access•Stefano Palestini, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•Cooperation and Conflict•2025•Cited by: 1•References: 18

    States from the Global South have long advanced normative claims against the legitimacy of unilateral sanctions. These arguments have been routinely voiced through UN General Assembly Resolutions, shaping a conventional discourse of contestation of unilateral sanctions. We interrogate whether this discourse was challenged by the deployment of unilateral sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leading to adjustments. We carry out a …

  • Money Talks? The Effectiveness of Sanctions in the ‘Rule of Law’ Conflict in the European Union

    Open Access•Adam Holesch, Clara Portela•ARTICLE•JCMS Journal of Common Market…•2025•Cited by: 9•References: 35

    The European Union (EU) responded to democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland by implementing a sanctions toolbox, which includes the Article 7 Treaty on European Union (TEU) mechanism, infringement procedures and funding conditionality. Whilst the Article 7 TEU procedure has been extensively studies and found to be ineffective, the efficacy of infringement procedures and the recently introduced funding conditionality – comprising the Conditi…

  • Aid Sanctions and Hybrid Regimes

    Clara Portela, Juan S Mora-Sanguinetti•ARTICLE•The Journal of Development Studies•2025•References: 72

Political science (24 works) · Law (22 works) · Economic Sanctions and International Relations (20 works) · Law (20 works) · Sanctions (20 works) · Economics (15 works) · European union (11 works) · International trade (11 works) · Politics (11 works) · Global Peace and Security Dynamics (8 works)

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