Dr Kseniya Oksamytna is a Reader in International Politics at City St Georges, University of London. Prior to that, she has worked as a Research Fellow on an ESRC-funded project “Democratization and UN Peacebuilding” led by Prof Oisín Tansey. She sits on the Editorial Board of International Peacekeeping.

Research

• International organisations
• International security
• International inequalities
• Peace operations

Kseniya’s research interests are international organisations (in particular, decision-making, resourcing, and inequalities in international bureaucracies), international security and peace operations. Her book, Advocacy and Change in International Organizations: Communication, Protection, and Reconstruction in UN Peacekeeping (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023) is the winner of the 2024 Chadwick F. Alger Book Award by the International Studies Association.

Publications

Books

• United Nations Peacekeeping and the Politics of Authoritarianism (with Oisín Tansey, Sarah von Billerbeck, and Birte Gippert, Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2025)
• Advocacy and Change in International Organizations: Communication, Protection, and Reconstruction in UN Peacekeeping (Oxford University Press, 2023)
• United Nations Peace Operations and International Relations Theory (edited by Kseniya Oksamytna and John Karlsrud, Manchester University Press, 2020)

Selected Research Articles

• Race and International Organizations (with Sarah von Billerbeck), International Studies Quarterly (2024)
• Theorizing Decision-Making in International Bureaucracies: UM Peacekeeping Operations and Responses to Norm Violations (with Oisín Tansey, Sarah von Billerbeck, and Birte Gippert), International Studies Quarterly (2023)
• Imperialism, Supremacy, and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, Contemporary Security Policy (2023)
• Adoption, Adaptation or Chance? Inter-Organisational Diffusion of the Protection of Civilians Norm from the UN to the African Union (with Nina Wilén), Third World Quarterly (2022)
• Introducing the Peacekeeping Mandates (PEMA) Dataset (with Jessica Di Salvatore, Magnus Lundgren, and Hannah Smidt), Journal of Conflict Resolution (2022) + website: https://peacemandates.com
• Decorating the ‘Christmas Tree’: The UN Security Council and the Secretariat’s Recommendations on Peacekeeping Operations (with Magnus Lundgren), Global Governance (2021)
• Leadership Selection in United Nations Peacekeeping (with Vincenzo Bove and Magnus Lundgren), International Studies Quarterly (2021)

Policy Papers

• Gender Considerations in the International Response to the Full-Scale Russian Invasion of Ukraine (with Felicity Gray), Global Public Policy Institute (2024)
• Can Racial Hierarchies in UN Peacekeeping Be Dismantled? (with Sarah von Billerbeck), Global Dialogue (2024)
• Responsible Management and Use of Data in UN Peace Operations, International Peace Institute (2023)
• Russia, NATO, and International Organizations, The Global Observatory, International Peace Institute (2022)

Media Articles

• Rusia’s Status as a Colonial Power, E-IR (2024)
• Ukraine: Russian Attitudes to Ukrainians Can Help to Explain the Atrocities, The Conversation (2022)
• Are UN Peacekeeping Leaders Held to Account? (with Magnus Lundgren and Vincenzo Bove), Political Violence at a Glance (2022)
• Peacekeeping Bosses Should Be Chosen by the UN and Not the Paymasters, PassBlue (2020)