Joshua Andresen, Esq.

• U.S. Sanctions
• U.S. Export Controls 
• Federal Litigation
• Copyright Infringement

Of Counsel

Joshua brings extensive government experience to advise clients on all aspects of sanctions risk and compliance, including specific license advice and applications, and export and reexport controls. 

Joshua’s sanctions expertise stems from his work as Senior Policy Advisor for Europe, Russia, and Central Asia in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He also focused on sanctions and export controls as an Attorney-Advisor at the U.S. Department of State, where he worked in the Office of the Legal Advisor for United Nations Affairs and in the Office of the Legal Advisor for African and Near Eastern Affairs. Joshua’s international law experience includes work at the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the High Court of Bombay. Joshua has been called upon to advise states, NGOs, and private corporations, provide expert opinions for international tribunals, and contribute to the work of UN Special Rapporteurs.

Joshua regularly speaks and publishes on U.S. and international sanctions, export controls, and related security and public international law issues.

• J.D.,  Yale Law School 
• Ph.D., Northwestern University 
• B.A., summa cum laude, University of Massachusetts

• Massachusetts

• “Talking to "the Enemy" shouldn't be illegal,” Just Security (Apr. 8, 2024)
• “The Lawfulness of Unilateral Sanctions in the Wake of a US-China ‘Sanctions War’,” forthcoming in China and the Future of the International Economic Order, (Hart Publishing, Summer 2024).
• “US Secondary Sanctions: Lawful After All?,” in The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy 
• of Sanctions (Routledge, 2023).
• “Fighting Terrorism under All Applicable Law,” in Between Crime and War: Hybrid Legal Frameworks For Asymmetric Conflict (Oxford University Press, March 2023).
• “The Paradox of Precision and the Weapons Review Regime,” Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence 5 (2021).
• “China’s Military and the Belt and Road Initiative: A View From the Outside,” Chinese Journal Of Global Governance 5 (2019).
• Expert Opinion Before the Inter-American Commission of Human Right in the case of The Al Ameris vs. 
• The United States, 16 December 2020 (concerning the impossibility of relief before US Courts for Yemeni victims of US drone strikes)
• “Putting Lethal Force on the Table: How Drones Change the Alternative Space of War and Counterterrorism,” Harvard National Security Journal 8 (2017) 
• “Due Process of War in the Age of Drones,” Yale Journal of International Law 41 (2016)
• “Transparency, Review, and Relief: The Far Reaching Implications of the Kunduz Report,” Just Security (May 13, 2016)
• “Challenging the Perplexity over Jus in Bello Proportionality,” European Journal of Legal Studies 7 (2015).
• “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms While Countering Terrorism” (contributing author), U.N. Doc. A/68/389 (Sept. 18, 2013)

• Caught in the Crossfire: Civilians in Armed Conflict, November 2023
• “Free Speech after Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project,” American Society of International Law Research Forum, Pittsburgh, November 2023
• Commentary: Is Russia winning the war?, May 2023
• “Unilateral Sanctions in the Wake of a US-China ‘Sanctions War’,” Centre for Chinese Law and Policy, Durham University, Durham, May 2023
• Expert comment: Ukraine war, weapons supply, NATO, and the China-US divide, February 2023
• “It’s Time to Rethink the Law of Armed Conflict,” American Society of International Law Research Forum, Miami, November 2022
• Law and the Future of War: Drone Strikes and the Safety of Civilians, September 2021
• “China’s Military and the Belt and Road Initiative: A View From the Outside,” China University for Political Science and Law, Beijing, October 2018
• “Putting Lethal Force on the Table: How Drones Change the Alternative Space of War and Counterterrorism,” Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, January 2017
• “Imposing Unjust Risk: Reexamining Drones’ Superior Humanitarian Claim,” 24th Annual SLS-BIICL Conference on Theory and International Law, London, May 2015
• “Rethinking jus in bello Proportionality,” United States Institute of Peace, Washington D.C., February 2015
• “Why Drones Must be Declassified,” Yale Global Justice Colloquium, New Haven, February 2014