Barzashka, Ivanka
Biography
Ivanka Barzashka is a research assistant in the Strategic Security Program at the Federation of American Scientists. Her work focuses on the technical dimensions of nonproliferation and international security policy. Barzashka manages FAS’s ongoing comprehensive, interdisciplinary technical assessment of Iranian nuclear capabilities and potential and how those could be used to manufacture a nuclear weapon. She is the author and coauthor of analyses on Iranian nuclear issues for the FAS Strategic Security Blog.
Prior to joining FAS in 2008, Barzashka earned a B.S. in physics with minors in foreign politics and mathematics from Roanoke College in Virginia, where she did research in astrophysics and completed an independent study on the need for reform of Bulgaria's national security concept in the context of the country's accession to NATO and the EU. The latter culminated in an internship at the Defense Policy, Strategy and Analysis Unit, Defense Policy Directorate at the Ministry of Defense of Bulgaria, where she worked on the draft of the country's new security strategy.
