Skip to main content
Nikki  Ikani

Dr Nikki Ikani

Research Fellow

Contact details

Biography

Dr Nikki Ikani conducts her research at the intersection of intelligence studies, public policy studies and EU foreign policy. Her overarching research goal is to assess the processes of knowledge production, receptivity and intelligence use by policymakers in European settings of decision-making.

Her previous research project at King’s College London was the ESRC-funded project entitled Foreign Policy and Intelligence in an Era of Surprise (INTEL), which focused on understanding the utility of estimative intelligence in this European setting, rather than the frequently studied US context. Specifically, she looked at processes of warning intelligence and estimative intelligence in the UK, Germany and the European Union with regard to two distinct recent strategic surprises: the Arab uprisings and the Ukraine conflict.

Her current research as Assistant Professor Intelligence and Security at Leiden University builds forward upon this ambition of developing a ‘European school’ of intelligence studies. Using literature on policy learning and knowledge use in policy making, she connects questions of intelligence production to questions of intelligence use and receptivity to intelligence by policymakers, particularly in Brussels but also in the European capitals.

A related strand of her research focuses on the governance of crisis and the way crises induce policy change, particularly at the European level. How do crises produce changes in specific European Union foreign policy areas, and how to conceptualise these policy changes? This question is addressed in her monograph Crisis and change in European Union foreign policy, to be published by Manchester University Press in 2021, which develops a novel typology for understanding foreign policy change at the European level.

 

Qualifications

  • BA Public Administration, Utrecht School of Governance, Utrecht University
  • MSc (Cum Laude) Political Science/International Relations, University of Amsterdam
  • MA European politics/Affaires Européennes, Sciences Po Paris
  • PhD European and International Studies, King’s College London

Research interests

  • The intelligence-policy nexus in European intelligence settings
  • Learning, knowledge production and knowledge use in intelligence and foreign policy
  • European Union Foreign Policy
  • European Neighbourhood Policy
  • Policy change
  • Historical Institutionalism
  • Foreign Policy Analysis

Teaching

  • EU foreign policy change
  • European intelligence production and use
  • Intelligence and policymaking
  • Foreign policy analysis

Selected publications

  • Crisis and change in European Union Foreign policy: a framework of EU foreign policy change (Manchester University Press: Manchester), 2021 (forthcoming)

 

News

'Fear of reporting bad news' among factors behind slow reaction to international crises

A reluctance to report or acknowledge bad news and the politicisation of analysis by member states were major contributors to incidents where the European...

EU

A public inquiry into the UK Government's handling of COVID-19 must focus on lesson-learning, not political accountability

A new report urges the UK to hold an expert-led inquiry into the Government’s handling of the pandemic, which prioritises lesson-learning over political...

COVID-19 information brochure from the UK government

Events

25NovEstimative intelligence in Europe event

Book Launch: Estimative Intelligence in European Foreign Policymaking

KISG invites attendees to join a book launch to celebrate the release of "Estimative Intelligence in European Foreign Policymaking: Learning Lessons from an...

Please note: this event has passed.

17MarThe event is taking place on 17 March. Picture: STOCK IMAGE

The European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy at a Crossroads: What lessons to be learnt and which futures to prepare for?

Organised by King’s College London’s European Foreign Policy Research Group in cooperation with the European Foreign Policy Unit of the LSE

Please note: this event has passed.

News

'Fear of reporting bad news' among factors behind slow reaction to international crises

A reluctance to report or acknowledge bad news and the politicisation of analysis by member states were major contributors to incidents where the European...

EU

A public inquiry into the UK Government's handling of COVID-19 must focus on lesson-learning, not political accountability

A new report urges the UK to hold an expert-led inquiry into the Government’s handling of the pandemic, which prioritises lesson-learning over political...

COVID-19 information brochure from the UK government

Events

25NovEstimative intelligence in Europe event

Book Launch: Estimative Intelligence in European Foreign Policymaking

KISG invites attendees to join a book launch to celebrate the release of "Estimative Intelligence in European Foreign Policymaking: Learning Lessons from an...

Please note: this event has passed.

17MarThe event is taking place on 17 March. Picture: STOCK IMAGE

The European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy at a Crossroads: What lessons to be learnt and which futures to prepare for?

Organised by King’s College London’s European Foreign Policy Research Group in cooperation with the European Foreign Policy Unit of the LSE

Please note: this event has passed.