To remain credible and coercive, sanctions must be reimagined as strategic levers—tools that defend democratic values, not just signal disapproval.

To restore sanctions’ effectiveness, the authors call for:
1. A permanent sanctions regulator.
2. Sharpened “smart sanctions”.
3. Banning distressed debt trades.
4. Deterring neutral, non aligned states.

The report also exposes how legal trades in distressed debt, under-regulated compliance, and passive enforcement allow hedge funds to profit while regimes endure, rearm, and rebrand isolation as strength.

Despite sweeping sanctions from the West, Russia’s economy grew 4% last year.

Speaking to LBC News, Dr Ivanov explains how sanctioned regimes like Russia are adapting by rerouting trade, exploiting loopholes, and using financial markets to turn sanctions into opportunity.

Sweden has shown it is possible for the UK to modernise its national security toolkit: use what we already have, just smarter and with the will to act.

The briefing’s multi-pronged approach includes:

1. Reframe threat perception to view actors like the IRGC as structural threats to civil order.
2. Establish strategic convergence through Parliamentary coordination.
3. Simultaneously apply multiple legal levers to increase responsiveness and impact.

Authored by Professor Matt Qvortrup, the briefing outlines a “flatpack proscription” model: a pragmatic, multi-agency framework using Britain’s existing laws to counter hybrid actors like the IRGC, which exploits legal gaps in charities, academia, and diaspora networks.

Read 'The Gullible Brain'—a neuroscience blueprint for fighting hate in a divided age: henryjacksonsociety.org/publications...