Katarzyna Zysk

Professor Katarzyna Zysk is Professor of International Relations and Contemporary History at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (IFS), part of the Norwegian Defence University College (NDUC) in Oslo, where she has worked since 2007. At the IFS, she also served as Deputy Director (2017-2021), Head of Centre for Security Policy, Director of Research, and Acting Dean of the NDUC (2016), where she continues to teaches and supervise research.

Following her 2006 PhD thesis on NATO enlargement, her research has focused on international security, defence, and strategic studies, with particular attention to Russia's military doctrine and strategy, armed forces, security and defence policies; nuclear strategy; naval strategy, security in the High North and the Arctic; and the role of AI and emerging technologies in defence innovation. She is also a part of the international research project The Russian Hybrid Intelligence State, led by the IFS. 

Professor Zysk has been a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), the Changing Character of War Centre (CCW) at the University of Oxford, The Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po), the Hoover Institution’s Arctic Security Initiative, and the Center for Naval Warfare Studies at the US Naval War College, where she cooperated closely also with the War Gaming Department.

She is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Core Group Member of the Russia Transatlantic Forum at the Center for a New American Security, a Member of the International Military Council on Climate Change, and Collegium Civitas. She has also served on the Advisory Board of the Transatlantic Deterrence Dialogue Initiative.

Her published research has appeared in Journal of Strategic Studies, SAIS Review of International Affairs,  Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,  RUSI Journal, Asia Policy, Politique Étrangère, Jane’s Navy International, War on the Rocks, and other peer reviewed and popular outlets, including by Cambridge and Oxford University Presses. She co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Strategic Studies on ‘Defence Innovation and the 4th Industrial Revolution, contributing a case study on Russia’s emerging defence technologies and AI.

Selected publications  

Hague Summit Series: Recalibrating Relations with Russia, The International Centre for Defence and Security (2025)

Russia’s Nuclear Doctrine Amendments: Scare Tactics or Real Shift? Unites States Institute of Peace (2025) 

Struggling, Not Crumbling: Russian Defence AI in a Time of War, RUSI Commentary (2023) 

High Hopes Amid Hard Realities. Defense AI in Russia, Defense AI Observatory, DAIO Study 23/11 (2023)   

Russia’s Military Build-Up in the Arctic: To What End?, Center for Naval Analyses (2020)    

She is a regular commentator for international media, including The New York Times, BBC World Service, CNN, Le Monde, Euronews, Deutsche Welle, NPR, Die Zeit, Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, El Pais, O Globo, and Sydney Morning Herald. She has contributed to documentaries, most recently for Discovery Channel, WSJ, DW, Bloomberg TV, and others.

She works fluently in English, French, Norwegian, Polish, and Russian.