What question does Brühl's paper Should They Go, or May They Stay ask, and which theories does it use to answer it?

Whether multinational companies are morally obliged to leave an aggressor state such as Russia simply because they operate there; it answers with the theory of complicity and the theory of sanctions, both framed by just war theory.

After Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, a normative debate began over whether multinationals should stop doing business in Russia. A Yale team led by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld compiled a list of companies that stayed, the so-called "Hall of Shame". The public mood is captured by quotes like "No business can be right in a war that's wrong."

Brühl (Journal of Business Ethics, 2025) examines this demand with three lenses:

• Just war theory: is the war unjust, and what follows for companies?
• Theory of complicity (Mittäterschaft): when does doing business make a company a participant in wrongdoing?
• Theory of sanctions: what do legitimate, state-imposed sanctions require of companies?

His conclusion is that companies must comply with legitimate targeted sanctions, but a blanket call for all of them to leave is not morally required and can itself be harmful.