Katherine Zimmerman is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where she focuses on the global Salafi-jihadi movement and counterterrorism. She also studies the al Qaeda network and related trends in the Middle East and Africa, including al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and dynamics in Yemen, al Shabaab in Somalia, and Salafi-jihadi groups in the Sahel region. Ms. Zimmerman  is also an adviser to AEI’s Critical Threats Project. She helped create and then directed the research for CTP’s open-source intelligence team of 15 staff and interns.

Ms. Zimmerman has testified before Congress about the threats to US national security interests emanating from al Qaeda and its network. In addition, she has briefed members of Congress, their staff, and US military, diplomatic, and intelligence community personnel.

Her commentary and analyses have been widely published, including in CNN.com, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, FoxNews.com, The Hill, The HuffingtonPost, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. She is often interviewed, and her appearances include the Associated Press, BBC News, Bloomberg News, CNBC, CNN’s “The Situation Room,” Fox News Channel’s “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Voice of America, and Yahoo Finance.

She is a term member with the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the RESOLVE Network Research Advisory Council.

Work Experience

American Enterprise Institute

Fellow, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies

July 2021 – present

Critical Threats Project Adviser

September 2019 – present

Resident Fellow, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies

September 2019 – June 2021

Critical Threats Project Research Manager

May 2016 – September 2019

Research Fellow, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies

July 2014 – September 2019

Senior Analyst, Critical Threats Project

January 2013 – May 2016

Analyst, Critical Threats Project

April 2010 – January 2013

Research Assistant, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies

January 2010 – April 2010

Council on Foreign Relations

Term Member

June 2019 – present

RESOLVE Network

Research Advisory Council Member

March 2019 – present

Education

King's College London

M.A., Department of War Studies, Terrorism, Security and Society

2020 – 2021Awarded Director's Award for best M.A. Terrorism, Security and Society Student

Yale University

B.A., Modern Middle East Studies and Political Science

2005 – 2009Awarded James Gordon Bennet Prize for best senior essay on topic of International Relations