In spite of rarely convincing the target to change, foreign policy sanctions have become the European Union’s (EU) preferred way of reacting to an ever-widening range of pressing external crises. A systematic analysis of how sanctions are talked about in foreign policy debates (1999-2015) suggests that the EU itself may not expect targets of sanctions to change. Arguments about effectiveness focus on implementation and infliction of harm but do not clarify how the target would ultimately be incited to stop breaking norms. Instead, the paper finds that politicians seek tough action beyond rhetoric when they call for sanctions. By combining symbolic and material properties, sanctions enable the often discredited EU to display extraordinary external agency. In conclusion, the main impetus for the EU’s sanctions policy is not a target-oriented cost-benefit calculus, but a self-oriented norm where ‘doing something’ is imperative and passivity equals complicity.
