CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Mejia Gallon, Manuela |
|---|---|
| Title | Digital Financial Sanctions as Economic Warfare: A Normative Analysis through Just War Theory |
| Summary | This thesis assesses the ethical implications of digital financial sanctions, specifically SWIFT bans, as tools of economic coercion in international relations. Often held up as “peaceful” alternatives to military force, these measures can nonetheless inflict systemic harm, thereby challenging their moral legitimacy. The main question, therefore, is whether digital financial sanctions can be considered a form of economic warfare and, if so, whether Just War Theory (JWT) constitutes a suitable framework for their assessment. Taking a normative-conceptual approach, the study concurs with neither Hormozi, who argues in favor of an extension of JWT to economic measures, nor Ellis, who calls for a separate ethical framework. Instead, the thesis offers a compromise position wherein JWT is blended with intentionalist and consequentialist ethics to emphasize that both moral intent and actual outcomes ought to be assessed. Using the case of Iran's SWIFT ban, the thesis illustrates the discrepancy between moral intent and the indirect yet grave harms of financial isolation, emphasizing the need for a less rigid but context-sensitive ethical framework capable of regulating economic coercion in an interconnected global system. |
| Supervisor | Roe Paul |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/mejia-gallon_manuela.pdf |
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