Dr Ksenia Kirkham is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of War Studies. Her current research focuses on Economic Warfare, with particular emphasis on critical minerals, international sanctions, and the intersection of economic coercion and sustainability. As part of her academic contributions, she has developed and introduced two innovative teaching modules, one at the undergraduate level and one at the postgraduate level – on Economic Warfare and Sanctions. These modules are among the first of their kind, equipping students with a critical understanding of the strategic use of economic tools in global affairs.

Previously she contributed to teaching various courses at King’s, including National Security Studies, International Economics, Energy Security, and Integration of the European Union.

Ksenia received her PhD from the Department of European and International Studies (EIS) at King’s College London. Ksenia also holds an MBA (British AMBA), and her work experience includes eight years in the oil and gas sector and in petroleum transportation, with a dynamic career, from junior economist to a senior managerial position.

 

Research

• Economic warfare and sustainable development
• The political economy of sanctions
• Energy security and welfare states

 

Teaching

Postgraduate modules:

• 7SSWN363 Sanctions and Economic Statecraft in War and Peace
• 7SSWN117 Contemporary Conflicts
• 7SSWN116 Dissertation

Undergraduate module:

• 5SSW2066 Sanctions and Economic Warfare

She also contributed to teaching 7SSWN087 Strategic Communications and 7SSWN095 National Security Studies

 

Latest publications

Books/Book Chapters 

• "Energy Embargos (Sanctions)" in Elgar Encyclopedia of International Sanctions 2025, Ed. C.Portela, A.Charron, M.Sossai https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/elgar-encyclopedia-of-international-sanctions-9781035339525.html

• National (in-)Security Strategy and Critical Minerals: Coercive Economic Statecraft Beyond Globalisation (2025, forthcoming) in Globalization in a Turbulent Era, Ed. L.S. Talani and A.Cafruny https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/globalization-in-a-turbulent-era-9781035330492.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqKkY8AZAaCxSFKXapFMIP0tBU5YDEfQ2R6tXTlRcO4jLhGUhrb

• Economic Warfare over Critical Minerals: The Risks for Sustainable Development and Climate Change (2025, forthcoming) in The Phenomenon of Economic Warfare: Past, Present and Future, Eds. Greg Kennedy, Anna Brinkman-Schwartz, US Army War College Press
• The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of Sanctions, Editor and author, 2023. 
  
  
• The Political Economy of Sanctions: Resilience and Transformation in Russia and Iran. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022
  
  
• EU 'Sovereignty’ in Global Governance: The Case of Sanctions. In: Grigoryev L., Pabst A. (eds) Global Governance in Transformation. Springer, Cham., 2019

Articles

• The Role of Sanctions in Global Politics: How Do Sanctions (Not) Work?, 2024, Ksenia Kirkham in ISPI Report: The Rise of Fragmentation. A New Economic Security Era? | ISPI; https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/the-rise-of-fragmentation-a-new-economic-security-era-184102
• The Paradox of the New Great Game: Do Europe and China Need More Pipelines from Eurasia?, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 24:1, 1-23, 2022, DOI: 10.1080/19448953.2021.1992192
• Sanctions—Strategic Miscommunications? The Case of Iran, in NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, 2020 
• Theoretical and Philosophical Positions in International Political Economy and the Ground for Theoretical Merger.” Concept: Philosophy, Religion, Culture 3(7):58–69. 2018
• An overview: From contradictions of capital to the history of contradictions of the welfare state, The Journal of Social Policy Studies 15(2):309, 2017
• The formation of the Eurasian Economic Union: How successful is the Russian regional hegemony? 22 April, 2016

See Ksenia's research profile

Google Scholar page

Research Gate profile