Ivanka Barzashka

Ivanka Barzashka is the director and founder of the Wargaming Network at King’s College London. She is concurrently a MacArthur-funded Research Associate at the Centre for Science and Security Studies where she examines how disruptive technologies affect nuclear risks by combining qualitative analysis, quantitative modelling and strategic wargaming. She currently leads a project, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, on aerospace defence and nuclear risk focusing on the United States, NATO and Russia. As part of the project, Barzashka directed a series of strategic wargames at King’s College London and the UK Defence Academy during 2017 and 2018. She led the game design process that resulted in a new method of strategic wargaming.

Previously, Barzashka managed the Federation of American Scientists’ interdisciplinary assessment of Iran’s nuclear capability, specializing in gas centrifuge technology. Her work has been cited by major news outlets including Reuters, the Associated Press and the Washington Post. She has developed physical and analytical models for assessing missile defence capabilities and evaluating technical options for missile defence cooperation, evaluating uranium enrichment performance, and measuring nuclear latency.

Barzashka was a MacArthur pre-doctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and a visiting fellow at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She holds a BS in physics from Roanoke College and an MA in science and security (with distinction) from King's College London, where she is currently pursuing a doctorate in war studies research. Barzashka has educational training in military operations and strategy from Cornell University and business entrepreneurship from Stanford University’s Business School.