This article proposes that economic sanctions be supplemented by cyber means. The author, Mark Peters, argues that current financial sanction practice often fails to achieve its intended effect — missing targeted accounts or actors, and taking years to register, as with the sanctions levied against Iran — and that it needs updating to matter in modern crisis resolution.
Peters sets out a methodology he designates Cyber Enhanced Sanctions, advocating digital techniques to influence national decision-makers while preserving three properties he treats as advantages over purely diplomatic measures: reversibility, secured communications, and the ability to deliver humanitarian relief through digital channels. He surveys current cyber means to establish a baseline for strategists, then applies the proposed approach to a case study of United States sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, arguing that it would expand the options available within the national power toolkit.