Targeted Sanctions Against Authoritarian Elites

Tsz-Ning Wong, Julia Grauvogel, Nikolay Marinov, Department of Economics and Barcelona Economic Analysis Team , University of Barcelona, GIGA Institute for African Affairs, German Institute for Global and Area Studies , Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg

Journal of Conflict Resolution

Published online on March 16, 2026

Abstract

Journal of Conflict Resolution, Ahead of Print.
A significant part of economic coercion deployed by the US, EU and the UN targets authoritarian regimes’ ruling elites. We develop a formal model to study the effects of such measures. The ruler chooses how much power to delegate to elites, while bracing ...