Welcome to The Sanctions Age
Twenty years ago, the U.S. Department of Treasury had imposed sanctions on fewer than 1,000 companies and individuals. Today, more than 10,000 entities have been targeted. No matter how much you might know about sanctions, the learning curve is only getting steeper.
Leaders around the world are imposing sanctions in response to wars, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, human rights violations, and technological competition. As a result, a growing list of countries are targeted by sanctions, export controls, and investment restrictions, including China, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela. Sanctions have also been recently imposed on officials and institutions in countries including Brazil, Colombia, France, Pakistan, and more.
The Sanctions Age is the publication of the Bologna Initiative for Sanctions Relief, an interdisciplinary group of economists, political scientists, historians, lawyers, and policymakers producing the world’s most insightful analysis on sanctions and their effects.
Through articles and podcast episodes, The Sanctions Age examines how sanctions are reshaping the world bringing insights from the nascent field of “sanctions studies” to a broad audience for the first time.
About the Initiative
The Bologna Initiative for Sanctions Relief, responds to the rise of sanctions as the most prevalent and far-reaching tool of contemporary statecraft and aims to provide an interdisciplinary platform to critically assess the challenges of sanctions relief, looking at “relief” in two dimensions. First, the initiative examines how best to regain momentum around efforts to reform sanctions design and implementation to reduce civilian harms. Second, the initiative aims to advance research and advocacy on effective termination of sanctions, which includes measures to remediate the lingering political, economic, social, and environmental effects of sanctions on targeted countries. Overall, the initiative aims to foster the interdisciplinary research and global networks that are necessary to create more responsible and effective sanctions policy.
The initiative launched with a conference in Bologna, Italy in November 2025 that brought together 30 distinguished scholars, analysts, and practitioners working on issues of sanctions policy for two days of intensive discussions in a roundtable format. The conference was jointly hosted by the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the University of Bologna. The initiative is led by the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, a London-based think tank, with initial financial support from the Open Society Foundations and the Fourth Freedom Forum.
Who is this platform for?
The Sanctions Age is a resource for anyone who needs to understand how sanctions are reshaping economics and politics today. Whether you’re a government official, investor, executive, attorney, economist, journalist, activist, or just someone who likes to be well-informed, the articles, podcast episodes, and newsletter emails will help you think about risks and opportunities in a world shaped by sanctions. If you read news publications like The Economist and The Financial Times or analysis from platforms like Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Le Grand Continent, or Phenomenal World, the articles published here will offer complementary insights. If you enjoy podcasts like Odd Lots, Planet Money, or 99% Invisible, we think you’ll like tuning into The Sanctions Age podcast.
Why subscribe?
Articles and podcast episodes from The Sanctions Age will be available for free to all subscribers.
But by becoming a paid subscriber here on Substack, you can gain unique benefits including invitations to subscriber-only webinars. Paid subscribers also have access to transcripts and special analysis for each podcast episode. Your support helps us pay for the contributions of reviewers, copyeditors, translators and other support staff.
Who manages the platform?
The Sanctions Age is managed by Josefine Petrick, a policy fellow at the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation. She is an expert on sanctions policy, with a focus on how sanctions can impact the political and economic determinants of global health equity. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Bologna with a Master’s degree in International Affairs.
Who hosts the podcast?
The Sanctions Age podcast is hosted by Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, who has spent more than a decade researching sanctions and their effects. He is the founder and CEO of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation and an Adjunct Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he teaches a course called “Sanctions and Their Effects.” He has published peer-reviewed research in several fields, including economics, international relations, social history, and public health.
