Abstract
Recent advancements in qualitative research document an increased attentiveness to transparency and rigor. Part of this development is to employ the software 'R' in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and to make use of rigorous process-tracing. Relying on the case of EU sanctions - when and why the EP requests trade sanctions on development countries - this methods seminar walks you through the basics of QCA, provides an overview of how to apply QCA in 'R', and identifies advantages and shortcomings of the method. In an endeavour to remedy these shortcomings, I present some ideas on how to combine QCA and process-tracing.