This enlightening new book unpacks the ascendancy of the European Union as a distinct actor in the field of international sanctions. Offering an innovative model of actorness, Kevin Urbanski establishes a coherent bridge between debates on actorness and mainstream theories of international institutions and European integration.

  Inspired by James S. Coleman's idea of corporate agency, Urbanski addresses the conceptual gap in scholarship by outlining a deductive, integrative and explanatory model of actorness, arguing that actorness constitutes a distinct mode of collective agency that can be modelled along the lines of corporate action. Urbanski's model of actorness explains the emergence of EU actorness and sheds light on the timing and reasoning behind this for the most commonly used European sanction instruments.



  Presenting an original and theoretically grounded approach to the problem of actorness, this book will be of critical use to scholars grappling with this problem, especially those working in the field of EU politics. Scholars of international sanctions and EU law, as well as practitioners working in these fields, will also benefit from Urbanski's comprehensive overview of EU restrictive measures and his unique approach to actorness.