John Cooney has published the article "Targeted Financial Sanctions" in the Administrative and Regulatory Law News, issued by the Administrative Law Section of the American Bar Association. The article describes how the Department of Treasury has developed a program of narrowly focused measures that have successfully excluded from international financial systems many persons and entities that have supported State-sponsored terrorist groups, notably Hamas and Hezbollah, and facilitated the development of nuclear weapons and missle systems by Iran and North Korea.
Prior unilateral measures by the United States to impose country-wide bans on rogue States received little support from other major financial powers. Since 2005, Treasury has developed a series of conduct-based measures against specific individuals and companies, backed by objective evidence gathered by financial intelligence and counter-terrorism agencies to show that the targets have served as intermediaries for terrorists or have facilitated proliferation of nuclear weapons. Many foreign governments and international financial institutions have supported the U.S. sanction efforts, which has substantially increased the costs and created roadblocks to development of nuclear capacity by unfriendly foreign States.
Prior unilateral measures by the United States to impose country-wide bans on rogue States received little support from other major financial powers. Since 2005, Treasury has developed a series of conduct-based measures against specific individuals and companies, backed by objective evidence gathered by financial intelligence and counter-terrorism agencies to show that the targets have served as intermediaries for terrorists or have facilitated proliferation of nuclear weapons. Many foreign governments and international financial institutions have supported the U.S. sanction efforts, which has substantially increased the costs and created roadblocks to development of nuclear capacity by unfriendly foreign States.