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Just Security ·Future-gazing

Sanctions Gaps and the Governance of Corruption Risk

by William Burke-White

Published 2026-06-04 13:13:34+00:00

If the rules for global sanctions are too messy to follow, who ends up holding the keys?

0:00 / 20:06 · Narrator Gacrux

Context

Relief trucks stalled at the Syrian border after the 2023 earthquake because the rules meant to help were too tangled to follow. Writing on 4 June 2026, the piece points to these legal gray areas—places where one country says yes and another says maybe—as the spots where corruption actually takes root. It offers a shift in perspective, moving away from the idea of sanctions as simple on-off switches. Instead, the focus is on the messy middle ground where influence is bought and sold just to get aid across a border.

Show notes

Sanctions regimes often produce legal gaps where trade is neither fully prohibited nor clearly authorized, creating new opportunities for corruption. Examples from Syria and Iraq show how fragmented international rules allow intermediaries to control access to markets. Reducing these risks requires aligning legal definitions across borders and building anti-corruption safeguards directly into the design of sanctions.

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