The Political Economy of Sanctions: Resilience and Transformation in Russia and Iran [Hardcover]

This book presents a comparative analysis of Russia and Iran under sanctions. Whilst the growing literature on sanctions has focused primarily on their effectiveness, much less attention has been paid to the ways in which sanctions have transformed target societies and states. Despite, or indeed because of, the relentless enactment of sanctions, Russia and Iran have become increasingly Hobbesian in their governance  more self-reliant, less democratic, and more aggressive towards the West. The author explores these developments through a novel Welfare State Regime framework (WSR) that combines welfare state functionality with institutional, economic, and cultural structural dimensions.

1. The Welfare State Regime as a Comparative Theoretical Account: From Welfare State to Gramsci.- 2. The Welfare State Regime as an Analytical Tool: From Gramsci to Welfare.- 3. Russia.- 4. Iran.- 5. Russia.- 6. Iran.- 7. Russia.- 8. Iran.- 9. Counter-Hegemonic Trends.

Ksenia Kirkham is Lecturer in the Department of War Studies at Kings College London, UK.

This path breaking book makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of sanctions in IPE. Developing a novel welfare state regime approach, Ksenia Kirkham shows that sanctions on Iran and Russia have resulted in significant functional and structural commonalities. Whilst the sanctions have had only limited effectiveness on these states foreign policies, they have led to the transformation and consolidation of self-reliant and centralized Hobbesian-type regimes.

 Alan W. Cafruny, Henry Bristol Professor of International Affairs, Hamilton College, USA

 

 Russia and Iran are rarely compared by scholars of comparative political eclã‚