This is a comprehensive overview of sanctions databases and how to acquire them, aimed at researchers. Covered datasets: HSE (1985, 1990, 2009), TIES (2009, 2014), TSC (2018), GSDB (2020, 2021, 2022), EUSANCT (2022), IST (2022), GIGA (2012).

HSE (1985, 1990, 2009)

“HSE” stands for the initials of Hufbauer, Schott and Elliott (later “HSEO” with Oegg included).

Authors: Gary Clyde Hufbauer, Jeffrey J. Schott, Kimberly Ann Elliott and Barbara Oegg.

Releases: 1985 (1st edition), 1990 (2nd edition), 2009 (3rd edition). For an overview of all editions, see Google Books.

Book: Economic Sanctions Reconsidered, 3rd Edition, Paper and Economic Sanctions Reconsidered, 3rd edition, plus CD-ROM.

BibTeX:

@book{hufbauer_economic_1985,
  address = {Washington, D.C. : Cambridge, Mass},
  title = {Economic sanctions reconsidered: history and current policy},
  isbn = {978-0-88132-017-6 978-0-262-08139-9},
  shorttitle = {Economic sanctions reconsidered},
  publisher = {Institute for International Economics ; Distributed by MIT Press},
  author = {Hufbauer, Gary Clyde and Schott, Jeffrey J. and Elliott, Kimberly Ann},
  year = {1985},
}

Introduction chapter available as PDF; selected case studies available as PDF.

Dataset files: Not available on the internet, only via purchase of the CD-ROM.

Code: Code for deriving the conclusions does not seem to be available.

TIES (2009, 2014)

“TIES” stands for The Threat and Imposition of Economic Sanctions.

Authors: T. Clifton Morgan, Navin Bapat, and Valentin Krustev.

Releases: 2009 (covering 1971-200), 2014 (covering 1945-2005).

Papers: “The Threat and Imposition of Economic Sanctions, 1971–2000”, available from JSTOR; “Threat and imposition of economic sanctions 1945–2005: Updating the TIES dataset”, available from SAGEPub.

BibTeX (original paper:

@article{morgan_threat_2009,
  title = {The {Threat} and {Imposition} of {Economic} {Sanctions}, 1971–2000},
  volume = {26},
  issn = {0738-8942},
  url = {https://www.jstor.org/stable/26275122},
  number = {1},
  journal = {Conflict Management and Peace Science},
  author = {Morgan, T. Clifton and Bapat, Navin and Krustev, Valentin},
  year = {2009},
  note = {Publisher: Sage Publications, Ltd.},
  pages = {92--110},
}

BibTeX (updated paper:

@article{morgan_threat_2014,
  title = {Threat and imposition of economic sanctions 1945–2005: {Updating} the {TIES} dataset},
  volume = {31},
  issn = {0738-8942},
  shorttitle = {Threat and imposition of economic sanctions 1945–2005},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1177/0738894213520379},
  doi = {10.1177/0738894213520379},
  language = {en},
  number = {5},
  journal = {Conflict Management and Peace Science},
  author = {Morgan, T. Clifton and Bapat, Navin and Kobayashi, Yoshiharu},
  month = nov,
  year = {2014},
  note = {Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd},
  pages = {541--558},
}

Home page: Threat and Imposition of Economic Sanctions (TIES) Data at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).

Dataset files: Available from the home page as TIES Version 4 (also 3.5) Excel files with a user manual (PDF).

Code: Code for deriving the conclusions does not seem to be available.

TSC (2018)

“TSC” stands for the UN Targeted Sanctions Consortium Database.

Authors: Thomas J Biersteker, Sue E Eckert, Marcos Tourinho, and Zuzana Hudáková.

Releases: 2018.

Paper: “UN targeted sanctions datasets (1991–2013)”, available via SAGEPub.

BibTeX:

@article{biersteker_targeted_2018,
  title = {{UN} targeted sanctions datasets (1991–2013)},
  volume = {55},
  issn = {0022-3433},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343317752539},
  doi = {10.1177/0022343317752539},
  language = {en},
  number = {3},
  journal = {Journal of Peace Research},
  author = {Biersteker, Thomas J and Eckert, Sue E and Tourinho, Marcos and Hudáková, Zuzana},
  month = may,
  year = {2018},
  note = {Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd},
  pages = {404--412},
}

Home page: Targeted Sanctions Initiative at the Graduate Institute, Geneva.

Dataset files: Scroll down on the home page, where you will find Excel and SPSS formats, the database codebook (PDF) and the UN Targeted Sanctions qualitative database (PDF.

Code: Code for deriving the conclusions does not seem to be available.

Addendum: Mr. Biersteker has developed the TSC into the UN Sanctions App, available on the Web and for mobile devices.

GSDB (2020, 2021, 2022)

“GSDB” stands for The Global Sanctions Data Base.

Authors: Gabriel Felbermayr, Erdal Yalcin, Yoto Yotov, Aleksandra Kirilakha, and Constantinos Syropoulos.

Releases: 2020, 2021, 2022.

Papers:

• “The Global Sanctions Data Base”, available via ResearchGate and ScienceDirect (paywalled).
• “The Global Sanctions Data Base: An Update that Includes the Years of the Trump Presidency”, available via RePEc IDEAS
• “The Global Sanctions Data Base – Release 3: COVID-19, Russia, and Multilateral Sanctions”, available from SSRN

BibTeX (2020):

@article{felbermayr_global_2020,
  title = {The {Global} {Sanctions} {Data} {Base}},
  volume = {forthcoming},
  doi = {10.1016/j.euroecorev.2020.103561},
  journal = {European Economic Review},
  author = {Felbermayr, Gabriel and Yalcin, Erdal and Yotov, Yoto and Kirilakha, Aleksandra and Syropoulos, Constantinos},
  month = may,
  year = {2020},
}

BibTeX (2021 update):

@techreport{kirilakha_global_2021,
  type = {School of {Economics} {Working} {Paper} {Series}},
  title = {The {Global} {Sanctions} {Data} {Base}: {An} {Update} that {Includes} the {Years} of the {Trump} {Presidency}},
  url = {https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/drxlwp/2021_010.html},
  number = {2021-10},
  institution = {LeBow College of Business, Drexel University},
  author = {Kirilakha, Aleksandra and Felbermayr, Gabriel and Syropoulos, Constantinos and Yalcin, Erdal and Yotov, Yoto},
  month = feb,
  year = {2021},
}

BibTeX (2022 update):

@misc{syropoulos_global_2022,
  address = {Rochester, NY},
  type = {{SSRN} {Scholarly} {Paper}},
  title = {The {Global} {Sanctions} {Data} {Base} – {Release} 3: {COVID}-19, {Russia}, and {Multilateral} {Sanctions}},
  shorttitle = {The {Global} {Sanctions} {Data} {Base} – {Release} 3},
  url = {https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=4291735},
  doi = {10.2139/ssrn.4291735},
  language = {en},
  author = {Syropoulos, Constantinos and Felbermayr, Gabriel J. and Kirilakha, Aleksandra and Yalcin, Erdal and Yotov, Yoto V.},
  year = {2022},
}

Home page: globalsanctionsdatabase.com and project page at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Dataset files: Not directly available to download, but writing to the authors via the listed contact email gets a swift response within a few days.

The authors say this about the data:

The GSDB is freely available and we will be happy to share it with interested researchers, who can request it by e-mail at (address withheld).

In order to ensure the consistency of the GSDB data, we only make the GSDB data available from this webpage. Distribution of the GSDB data through other websites or institutions is not permitted. We kindly ask all users not to upload the data independently to another platform.

Code: Code for deriving the conclusions does not seem to be available.

EUSANCT (2022)

Authors: Patrick M Weber and Gerald Schneider.

Releases: 2022.

Paper: “Post-Cold War Sanctioning by the EU, the UN, and the US: Introducing the EUSANCT Dataset”, available via SAGEPub.

BibTeX:

@article{weber_post-cold_2022,
  title = {Post-{Cold} {War} sanctioning by the {EU}, the {UN}, and the {US}: {Introducing} the {EUSANCT} {Dataset}},
  volume = {39},
  issn = {0738-8942, 1549-9219},
  shorttitle = {Post-{Cold} {War} sanctioning by the {EU}, the {UN}, and the {US}},
  url = {http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0738894220948729},
  doi = {10.1177/0738894220948729},
  language = {en},
  number = {1},
  journal = {Conflict Management and Peace Science},
  author = {Weber, Patrick M and Schneider, Gerald},
  month = jan,
  year = {2022},
  pages = {97--114},
}

Home page: EUSANCT: Does Supranational Coercion Work? Onset, Impact and Effectiveness of EU Sanctions at the University of Konstanz.

Dataset files: On the home page, both the case-level and the dyadic datasets with their respective codebooks are available as Excel and (Stata) .dta files. The case summaries are available as PDF.

Code: Code for deriving the conclusions does not seem to be available.

IST (2022)

“IST” stands for the International Sanctions Termination Dataset.

Authors: Hana Attia, Julia Grauvogel, and Christian von Soest.

Releases: 2022.

Papers:

• “The Termination of International Sanctions: Explaining Target Compliance and Sender Capitulation”, available from ResearchGate or ScienceDirect.
• “How Do International Sanctions End? Towards a Process-Oriented, Relational, and Signalling Perspective”, available from JSTOR and from GIGA as a working paper (look for the Download GIGA WP 320 button under Ms. Attia’s name).
• “International Sanctions Termination, 1990–2018: Introducing the IST dataset”, available from SAGEPub (Open Access) or ResearchGate.

BibTeX (European Economic Review):

@article{article,
  author = {Attia, Hana and Grauvogel, Julia and von Soest, Christian},
  year = {2020},
  month = {08},
  pages = {103565},
  title = {The Termination of International Sanctions: Explaining Target Compliance and Sender Capitulation},
  volume = {129},
  journal = {European Economic Review},
  doi = {10.1016/j.euroecorev.2020.103565}
}

BibTeX (2020 GIGA working paper):

@techreport{10.2307/resrep21217,
  URL = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep21217},
  author = {Julia Grauvogel and Hana Attia},
  institution = {German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA)},
  title = {How Do International Sanctions End?: Towards a Process-Oriented, Relational, and Signalling Perspective},
  year = {2020}
}

BibTeX (2022 Journal of Peace Research article):

@article{attia_international_2022,
  title = {International {Sanctions} {Termination}, 1990–2018: {Introducing} the {IST} dataset},
  issn = {0022-3433},
  shorttitle = {International {Sanctions} {Termination}, 1990–2018},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433221087080},
  doi = {10.1177/00223433221087080},
  language = {en},
  journal = {Journal of Peace Research},
  author = {Attia, Hana and Grauvogel, Julia},
  month = aug,
  year = {2022},
  note = {Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd},
  pages = {00223433221087080},
}

Home page: The Termination of International Sanctions: Causes, Processes and Domestic Consequences at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) at the Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien.

Dataset files: The Excel spreadsheet and codebook as PDF are available from Harvard Dataverse, as linked to from here.

Code: Code for deriving the conclusions does not seem to be available.

GIGA (2012)

“GIGA” stands for German Institute for Global and Area Studies, the research body at the Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien that the authors are affiliated with.

Authors: Christian von Soest and Clara Portela.

Releases: 2012.

Various publications associated with this dataset.

BibTeX (as suggested by search.gesis.org):

@misc{SDN-10.7802-1346,
  author = "Portela, Clara and von Soest, Christian",
  title = "GIGA Sanctions Dataset",
  year = "2012",
  howpublished = "German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). Datenfile Version 1.0.0, https://doi.org/10.7802/1346",
  doi = "10.7802/1346",
}

Home page: GIGA Sanctions Dataset at the Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien; as part of wider research effort Ineffective Sanctions? External Sanctions and the Persistence of Autocratic Regimes.

Dataset files: From the GESIS archives, the Excel spreadsheet and the codebook are available (after checking the box agreeing to the terms of service).

Code: Code for deriving the conclusions does not seem to be available.

Supplement

Comparion of HSE, TIES and TSC datasets, as compiled by an article for TSC: Available from ResearchGate.

I’m moving places again. What used to be a source of pride, not being weighed down by anything and anyone, is becoming a nuisance.

The joy of discovering the unfamiliar, learn, train and enlargen one’s knowledge of it, then moving on to the next and letting the “old” quickly fizzle out - that has been a driving force in my life. Yet I have seldom experienced true mastery in any discipline, something to be passionate about and knowledgeable enough to carry deep conversations about. I am longing to change that.

I have begun planting roots, becoming involved beyond the temporary, embracing the mundane and familiar. But I must be careful to not let the pendulum swing too far into the other direction, being too content with the current state of affairs and closed off to meeting new people and insights.

• You can’t repair your shit because you lack the tools
• You cannot help out your neighbours, teach your kids
• You have to rely on external service providers for everything
• You un-learn how to to things yourself
• You are unprepared for emergencies
• It fosters short-term thinking
• You own stuff to use it. Not owning stuff means not being able to do stuff
• You make spur-of-the-moment decisions and buy bad products because you have no experience with the tools you need
• Division of labour is great and all; sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands

There is no truth, only observation and opinion. This holds true for many occasions, including but not limited to discussions, journalism and and progress.

The plane lands, the train takes you through familiar regions, and you expect to feel back “at home”. Life goes on, you are no longer the foreigner everyone looks at, you blend into the crowd, communication is effortless. 

You revisit the places of your childhood. You try to form new habits, find a gym, familiarize yourself with the complexities of German bureaucracy, talk to strangers and wonder why everyone wants to keep to themselves.

Meeting with old friends, seeing how much you have grown apart from others, and realizing who you really care about.

There is just… something is missing. Money is tight, and there is this nine-to-five life, a rut settling in. The next three years are going to be tedious and laborious, all just in hopes of reaping some benefit from my education.

It’s been a while since I finished this tour, but I still haven’t found time to write down the exact whereabouts, personal recommendations as well as most of my travel experiences.

Although the flight with Air China was booked way in advance, I still did not really know what I was getting myself into. Stepping out of the airport, the heat hit me and I was impressed by the politeness that I saw around me.

The first days after arrival I stayed in TaiwanMex in Taipei, bought a Lonely Planet and visited the sights of the city. Apart from the obligatory Taipei 101 and Chiang-Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, I stopped often and took a look at many of the curiosities the city had to offer. Sun-Yat-Sen Memorial Hall is quite nice at nighttime and lots of people gather for breakdance performances at the entrance to the building.

After I had found a bike shop willing to rent me a 2000$ bike for 5€ a day(get out at MRT stop Quilian, take exit 1 and after about 200m of walking on the road to the left of the metro, you should be able to see a carwash, continue and after a few meters you will find a small bike shop), I packed up and started riding. My first stop was the harbour city Keelung north-east of Taipei. The roads were congested and the heat made everyone nervous. I was so relieved to finally see the waves and followed the coastline to Fulong beach.
Along the way, I met many friendly cyclists from all over Asia, who followed the same route as me.

I slept at a small surf shack in Ciayi and took a surfing lesson the next day. The waves were ideal and everybody had a great time. You could already tell a typhoon was coming though.
After a night at a bar in Yilan I took my bike on the train to Hualien(Xin Zen). You should have somebody arrange it in advance for you or you might run into a conductor giving you trouble.
From there on my trusty bike had to endury the steep climbs of Taroko Gorge National Park. The first night was spent in Tianshiang at the Catholic Youth hostel. Not a single word of English was spoken, but luckily some friendly Malaysian guests there to save the day for all unsuspecting western travellers.
There is a beautiful trail called Luishui-Wenshan-trail near Tianshiang, crossing abandoned old bridges and going up and down the mountains. At this time of the year I had the trail all to myself.
Be sure to apply for a mountain permit beforehand.
The hot springs at the end are very convenient and I found them to be much more relaxing than the ones I found near Puli later on.

After getting some rest, I spent the next day struggling partly with the mountains, but mainly the worsening weather. Car drivers kept telling the storm was going to hit much earlier than expected.
The rain kept getting stronger and I was glad to finally arrive in Guanyun, having covered around 2000m of elevation and about 60km of serpentine after serpentine.
Back on the road after the typhoon, the streets were not as devastated as I would have expected them to be. The roadworkers, many of which came to the police station, the only building to have electricity and access to running water, did a great job during the night.

The last bit to the top of Highway 14 is just excruciating, in turn the descent is even more rewarding. The night was spent in Puli Guest House, the owner, a Japanese expatriate, was quite helpful in planning the next steps of my journey.
Sun-Moon-Lake kind of failed to impress me, so I continued without staying there too long. Lukang was nice, but the rest of Changhua couny and around just seemed boring and the infrastructure seemed to consist of long strips of indistinguishable roads and car shops.
The bus back to Taipei was on time, comfortable, allowed me to take my bike without a hassle, arrived quickly and made me wonder why transportation at home still does not work that seamless at all.

After returning the bike, getting some chores done and exploring Taipei, a bus took me to Kaohsiung and the night was spent at the interesting, albeit slightly touristy nightmarket.

To be continued.