Compliance with international sanctions commitments in the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic belongs among those countries which only carry out sanctions which have been imposed by organisations. However, in compliance with adopted international norms, it contributes substantially to the sanctions’ success. At the same time, the question of joining multilateral sanctions’ regimes is not decided arbitrarily in the case of the Czech Republic. This means that the mechanisms ensuring norm-consistent behaviour are introduced first. The domestic sources of compliance in the newly independent state, as well as those international developments which influenced the sanctions’ cost-benefit ratio in the late 1990s, illustrate the difficulties in the implementation of, and compliance with, sanctions in the Czech Republic. This article emphasizes the influence of the rule setting institutions, and socialization mechanisms, primarily within the UN and the EU.