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The global community is increasingly drawing on economic tools to confront the whole panoply of security and policy threats, from terrorism, narcotics trafficking, corruption, and cybercrime to nuclear proliferation and human rights violations. Indeed, financial and economic sanctions have formed the primary U.S. government response to some of this past decade’s largest geopolitical threats, whether Iran or North Korea’s nuclear programs or Russia’s incursions into eastern Ukraine and election meddling. Other countries – most notably China and Russia – have also sharpened their use of economic tools of statecraft, although more often through foreign investment/aid and trade restrictions than through formal sanctions. This course will provide a grounding in the theory and practice of economic sanctions and statecraft as it is employed today – namely, how governments and the United Nations wield financial and economic tools to shape geopolitics and influence the behavior of state and non-state actors. We will examine the emergence of “smart” or targeted sanctions, as well as the oft-misunderstood “secondary sanctions.” We will pay particular attention to the design of sanctions programs and the practical elements that are necessary for a sanctions program to succeed. Beyond sanctions, we will assess how trade, assistance, and investment are being used by governments around the world to advance geopolitical, as opposed to economic, goals. Finally, we will take up the trend lines and potential unintended effects of the growing reliance on economic statecraft – how targeted countries are shoring up their defenses and striking back and how policymakers can prepare themselves for the challenges to come.