Arctic Realities: The High North’s Strategic Balance and Why it Matters

Prof. Dr. Katarzyna Zysk is Professor of International Relations and Contemporary History at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (IFS), where she has held senior leadership positions including Deputy Director, Head of Centre for Security Policy, and Director of Research. She served as Acting Dean of the Norwegian Defence University College, where she continues to teach regularly. 

Her research expertise spans Russian military strategy, doctrines, and warfare, security in the High North and the Arctic, nuclear deterrence, maritime security and naval strategy, and AI and EDTs in defence innovation. This work builds on her 2006 PhD thesis examining NATO enlargement to Eastern Europe, establishing a foundation for more than two decades of scholarly contribution to international security, defence and strategic studies. 

Professor Zysk has held visiting professorships at leading research institutions worldwide: the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University, the Changing Character of War Centre at the University of Oxford, the Center for Naval Warfare Studies at the US Naval War College, and the Center for International Studies at Sciences Po (The Paris Institute of Political Studies). 

She has served as Core Group Member of the Russia Transatlantic Forum at the Center for a New American Security, as Member of the Transatlantic Deterrence Dialogue Initiative and the Arctic Initiative at the Hoover Institution. She is currently a member Collegium Civitas in Warsaw, and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States. 

Her scholarship has influenced both academic discourse and public policy through extensive publications in peer-reviewed journals, including SAIS Review of International Affairs, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Survival, Journal of Strategic Studies, Asia Policy, RUSI Journal, Politique Étrangère, Jane's Navy International, and War on the Rocks, as well as in volumes published by Cambridge and Oxford University Presses. She is also a frequent commentator in leading global and national media outlets, such as The New York Times, BBC World Service, Euronews, CNN, NPR, The Economist, Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Deutsche Welle, Die Welt, ARD, Die Zeit, Sydney Morning Herald, El País, O Globo, and others, including contributions to several documentary productions, most recently for Discovery Channel, Bloomberg TV, and BBC Documentary. 

https://www.forsvaret.no/en/research/staff/zysk-katarzyna