Isabell Burmester1; 1 Sorbonne Nouvelle University (Paris 3), France
Discussion
Russia’s escalation of the war in Ukraine on 24 February 2022 triggered an unprecedented wave of sanctions against Russia. What received less attention is the fact that Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) also decided to suspend Russia’s membership or limit Russian participation in their activities. This paper takes stock of the different IGO responses and develops a typology of membership sanctions that also takes into account more informal sanctioning practices. To date there exists no comprehensive overview of the international organizations that imposed membership sanctions on Russia and the ways in which they did this. The possible measures stipulated in IGO charters are expulsion and suspension or restriction of participation or services. However, the existence of a suspension clause in the IGO charter is not a necessary condition for suspension. IGOs do take measures even when there is no organizational rule that can be applied. And even when no formal measure is applied, member states can apply informal diplomatic measures to isolate Russia (e.g., walk-outs, coalition building during negotiations). The main aim of this paper is to develop a typology of IGO responses to Russia’s war in Ukraine based on a new data set of 88 IGOs with Russian membership and their actions to limit Russian participation. Responses are analysed for the first instances of Russian contestation from 2007 until 2013, for the first phase of the war in Ukraine from 2014 until 2021, and for the violation of international norms post-February 2022. The findings of this analysis further our understanding of which multilateral and regional organizations did what concretely and how international cooperation continues (or not) in the context of this conflict.
