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 – presentCritical Threats Project Adviser
September 2019 – presentResident Fellow, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies
September 2019 – June 2021Critical Threats Project Research Manager
May 2016 – September 2019Research Fellow, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies
July 2014 – September 2019Senior Analyst, Critical Threats Project
January 2013 – May 2016Analyst, Critical Threats Project
April 2010 – January 2013Research Assistant, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies
January 2010 – April 2010Council on Foreign Relations
Term Member
June 2019 – presentRESOLVE Network
Research Advisory Council Member
March 2019 – presentEducation
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 StudentYale 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