Zachary Kallenborn is an MPhil/PhD candidate in War Studies at King's College London, studying global catastrophic risks from an adversarial lens: why have states, non-state actors, and individuals attempted to sabotage or undermine efforts to prevent catastrophe? He is also affiliated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Schar School of Policy and Government, the National Institute for Deterrence Studies, and, until recently, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). His extensive research, writing, and analysis occasionally receive global news coverage and influence a broad range of state, federal, and global security policies and strategies.

Zachary has appeared in Netflix's "UNKNOWN: Killer Robots," is an officially proclaimed U.S. Army "Mad Scientist," was technically a Newsweek centrefold model, and serves on the board of advisors for Synthetic Decision Group, Inc. and the Michael J. Morell Center for Intelligence and Security Studies at the University of Akron. Previously, he spent eight years in homeland, national, and global security consulting, providing research, analysis, and writing support across the US interagency and global governments.

 

Research Interests 

• Global catastrophic risk
• Drone warfare
• Weapons of mass destruction
• Extreme terrorism
• Homeland and national security policy

 

Thesis

Embracing the Apocalypse: Theorizing about Global Catastrophic Spoilers

Supervisors

• Dr Jennifer Mitchell
• Dr Tim Stevens

 

Publications

• “Breaking the Drone Shield: Countering Drone Defenses,” Joint Force Quarterly, Vol 113, 2^nd Quarter, June 2024 (Lead author with Marcel Plichta): https://digitalcommons.ndu.edu/joint-force-quarterly/vol113/iss1/7/

• “The Logic of Rampage Terrorism,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, February 25, 2024, (Lead author with Gary Ackerman and Herbert Tinsley): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1057610X.2024.2322759

• “Existential Terrorism: Can Terrorists Destroy Humanity?” European Journal of Risk Regulation, Vol 14, No. 4, August 4, 2023 (Lead author with Gary Ackerman): https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-risk-regulation/article/existential-terrorism-can-terrorists-destroy-humanity/5A3724049B1985D8762AACC4DDBB8C0C

• “InfoSwarms: Drone Swarms and Information Warfare,” Parameters, Vol 52, No. 2, 2022: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol52/iss2/13/

• “Are Drone Swarms Weapons of Mass Destruction?” US Air Force Center for Strategic Deterrence Studies, May 2020, https://media.defense.gov/2020/Jun/29/2002331131/-1/-1/0/60DRONESWARMS-MONOGRAPH.PDF

• “Swarming Destruction: Drone Swarms and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Weapons,” The Nonproliferation Review, Vol. 25, No. 5-6, 2018 (Lead author with Philipp Bleek): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10736700.2018.1546902

For a complete list of publications, presentations, and press, see: zkallenborn.com