
EU strategic communications to support sanctions against Russia
Think tank: RUSI
Author(s): Balázs Gyimesi
June 4, 2024
This report from UK think tank RUSI offers a data-driven analysis of the EU’s strategic communications on sanctions against Russia.
This paper examines the question: How does the EU use strategic communications to persuade third countries to cooperate on sanctions?
The paper analyses how the EU is using arguments linked to upholding values and appealing to the interests of third countries. Diplomacy and strategic communications are key to making sanctions effective. Tackling the challenge of sanctions circumvention requires the cooperation of non-sanctioning (or third) countries, and sanctions diplomacy plays an important role in persuading them to cooperate.
This paper offers a data-driven analysis of the EU’s strategic communications on sanctions against Russia, showing that the EU relies mostly on addressing interests (such as EU accession and economic interests) and framing support for sanctions as economically or politically desirable for third countries.
To a lesser degree, values also play a role in the EU’s outreach, mostly in relation to protecting the principles of international law. This is in line with EU foreign policy’s broader shift to focusing more on interests.