Gordon Book
Gordon Explores the Human Cost of Economic Sanctions
New book published by Cambridge University Press
Joy Gordon, JD, PhD, a philosophy professor and the Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J. Professor of Social Ethics in Loyola University Chicago’s College of Arts and Sciences, recently published Economic Sanctions from Havana to Baghdad: Legitimacy, Accountability, and Humanitarian Consequences, an edited volume published by Cambridge University Press.
Economic sanctions have been imposed on dozens of countries and thousands of individuals, triggering humanitarian crises and creating economic chaos, often with little accountability. Sanctions can cause particular harm to vulnerable populations, including women, children, migrants, and the poor.
Published in January 2026, the volume examines how modern sanctions are designed and implemented, particularly those that emerged after the Cold War.
“Dr. Gordon’s scholarship exemplifies how philosophy can engage some of the most pressing global issues of our time,” said Peter J. Schraeder, PhD, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “By examining how economic sanctions affect vulnerable populations around the world, this volume challenges us to think more critically about accountability, justice, and the human consequences of international policy decisions.”
Drawing on cases from Syria, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, and elsewhere, the chapters in this volume explore issues such as the gendered effects of sanctions; how migrants are affected; risk assessment practices by international businesses; how sanctions affect private actors such as banks; and the effects of sanctions on economic development, infrastructure, and access to health care.
“We are accustomed to seeing sanctions used frequently, predominantly imposed by the United States and the West against countries in the Global South, with little regard for their impact on economic development or even basic human needs,” said Gordon. “Sanctions are imposed on thousands of individuals, with little due process. Sanctions imposed on Iraq, Yemen, and Venezuela were instrumental in triggering or worsening severe humanitarian crises, and the United States’ current fuel blockade against Cuba is doing the same.”
Scholars have praised the volume for its timely and critical perspective. Anthony F. Lang Jr., professor of international political theory at the University of St Andrews, described it as, “an outstanding new volume on economic sanctions,” noting that its focus on legitimacy and accountability provides important insights into a policy tool often portrayed as a more humanitarian alternative to war.
Gordon’s scholarship has long explored the legal and ethical dimensions of economic sanctions. Her earlier book, Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions, published by Harvard University Press, examined the humanitarian consequences of the sanctions imposed on Iraq in the 1990s and remains a widely cited work in the field.
At Loyola, Gordon’s research and teaching focus on social and political philosophy, human rights, international law, and ethical issues in global governance. She holds a joint appointment with the School of Law and serves on the editorial board of Ethics and International Affairs. Through her work, Gordon continues to examine how international policy decisions impact the lives of vulnerable populations around the world.
About the College of Arts and Sciences
Founded in 1870, the College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest and largest of Loyola University Chicago’s 13 schools and colleges, serving as the academic home for nearly 8,000 students (roughly 50 percent of Loyola’s total student population). It is academically diverse with twenty academic departments that span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. It is also highly interdisciplinary with thirty-one interdisciplinary programs and seven interdisciplinary centers, including the mission-centric Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. The College is home to over 450 full-time, award-winning faculty, who are committed to teaching and research excellence. They teach nearly 2,000 classes each semester, including 88 percent of all Core Curriculum classes taken by undergraduate students across the university. They also contribute to eleven doctoral programs whose graduates have helped propel Loyola starting in 2025 to R-1 research status (the highest research status a university can achieve). Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our John Felice Rome Center in Italy, as well as at dozens of university-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the university’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever-deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”
Joy Gordon, JD, PhD, a philosophy professor and the Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J. Professor of Social Ethics in Loyola University Chicago’s College of Arts and Sciences, recently published Economic Sanctions from Havana to Baghdad: Legitimacy, Accountability, and Humanitarian Consequences, an edited volume published by Cambridge University Press.
Economic sanctions have been imposed on dozens of countries and thousands of individuals, triggering humanitarian crises and creating economic chaos, often with little accountability. Sanctions can cause particular harm to vulnerable populations, including women, children, migrants, and the poor.
Published in January 2026, the volume examines how modern sanctions are designed and implemented, particularly those that emerged after the Cold War.
“Dr. Gordon’s scholarship exemplifies how philosophy can engage some of the most pressing global issues of our time,” said Peter J. Schraeder, PhD, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “By examining how economic sanctions affect vulnerable populations around the world, this volume challenges us to think more critically about accountability, justice, and the human consequences of international policy decisions.”
Drawing on cases from Syria, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, and elsewhere, the chapters in this volume explore issues such as the gendered effects of sanctions; how migrants are affected; risk assessment practices by international businesses; how sanctions affect private actors such as banks; and the effects of sanctions on economic development, infrastructure, and access to health care.
“We are accustomed to seeing sanctions used frequently, predominantly imposed by the United States and the West against countries in the Global South, with little regard for their impact on economic development or even basic human needs,” said Gordon. “Sanctions are imposed on thousands of individuals, with little due process. Sanctions imposed on Iraq, Yemen, and Venezuela were instrumental in triggering or worsening severe humanitarian crises, and the United States’ current fuel blockade against Cuba is doing the same.”
Scholars have praised the volume for its timely and critical perspective. Anthony F. Lang Jr., professor of international political theory at the University of St Andrews, described it as, “an outstanding new volume on economic sanctions,” noting that its focus on legitimacy and accountability provides important insights into a policy tool often portrayed as a more humanitarian alternative to war.
Gordon’s scholarship has long explored the legal and ethical dimensions of economic sanctions. Her earlier book, Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions, published by Harvard University Press, examined the humanitarian consequences of the sanctions imposed on Iraq in the 1990s and remains a widely cited work in the field.
At Loyola, Gordon’s research and teaching focus on social and political philosophy, human rights, international law, and ethical issues in global governance. She holds a joint appointment with the School of Law and serves on the editorial board of Ethics and International Affairs. Through her work, Gordon continues to examine how international policy decisions impact the lives of vulnerable populations around the world.
About the College of Arts and Sciences
Founded in 1870, the College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest and largest of Loyola University Chicago’s 13 schools and colleges, serving as the academic home for nearly 8,000 students (roughly 50 percent of Loyola’s total student population). It is academically diverse with twenty academic departments that span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. It is also highly interdisciplinary with thirty-one interdisciplinary programs and seven interdisciplinary centers, including the mission-centric Jesuit Heritage Research Center and the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage. The College is home to over 450 full-time, award-winning faculty, who are committed to teaching and research excellence. They teach nearly 2,000 classes each semester, including 88 percent of all Core Curriculum classes taken by undergraduate students across the university. They also contribute to eleven doctoral programs whose graduates have helped propel Loyola starting in 2025 to R-1 research status (the highest research status a university can achieve). Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our John Felice Rome Center in Italy, as well as at dozens of university-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the university’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21st century at ever-deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”