The contemporary Russian invasion of Ukraine requires a reassessment of the European Union’s foreign policy tools as the threat of war has not been so high in recent history. As the EU’s sanction...Show moreThe contemporary Russian invasion of Ukraine requires a reassessment of the European Union’s foreign policy tools as the threat of war has not been so high in recent history. As the EU’s sanction regime is one of the most important tools for the union outside influence on that is important to be evaluated. For that Kingdon’s stream model is used, together with policy advisory systems theory, to analyse the influence of think tanks in the European Unions sanction regime. In this combined model a most similar system’s design is applied to analyse the influence of think tanks in similar cases. A relation is found between think tank publications and the implementation of sanctions, from which is inferred that the influence of think tanks is primarily in the political stream. Consequently, as the political stream is influenced that is the weakest spot of the EU’s sanction regime. As the EU consists of democratic states this is not a major issue because within the members states the decision-makers are held accountable. Moreover, the members of the European parliament are also held accountable so there are two manners that compensate this weakness.Show less
