Economic sanctions have become an increasingly popular instrument of foreign policy. They have been used with increasing incidence to discourage or punish a variety of objectionable practices--such as terrorism, ethnic cleansing, nuclear proliferation, human rights abuses--by states and multilateral organizations such as the UN and NATO. Yet much controversy characterizes the debate about both the motivations behind the initiation of economic sanctions and the consequences following from their imposition. This collection of essays seeks to illuminate this debate through a combination of different methodologies and cases.