Anja Shortland
Anja Shortland is Professor of Political Economy at King’s College London, where she studies private governance in some of the world’s most complex and hostile markets, including kidnapping, piracy, fine art theft, antiquities, and ransomware. Her work explores how people trade, negotiate, and create systems of order in environments where formal state enforcement is weak or absent.
Drawing on insights from economics, international relations, and across multiple disciplines, Anja examines how illicit markets function in practice, focusing on the role of reputation, insurance, and informal institutions in enabling transactions between criminals and their victims. Her research challenges conventional views of organised crime by showing how even highly illicit activities can rely on predictable rules and structures.
She is the author of three major books: ‘Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business‘ (2019), which analyses the global kidnapping industry and its negotiation dynamics; ‘Lost Art‘ (2021), which explores the recovery and trade of stolen and looted art; and ‘We Know You Can Pay a Million: Inside the Dark Economy of Hacking and Ransomware‘ (2026) (published in the US as Dark Screens), which examines the rise of ransomware as a mature criminal market.
Before joining King’s, Anja held academic positions at the University of Leicester and Brunel University, and has worked as a consultant to the World Bank. She studied Engineering and Economics at Oxford and completed her MSc and PhD in International Relations at the London School of Economics.
