Amy Zalman

Focus Areas: Anticipatory Governance & Strategic Foresight, AI Governance, Information Warfare & Cognitive Conflict, Institutional Power & Distributed Authority, Strategic Narrative

Amy Zalman is a strategist, futurist, author and educator whose work examines how geopolitical trends and emerging technologies—particularly artificial intelligence and information systems—are transforming governance, security, and institutional power.

She has held leadership positions spanning defense, civil society, and professional services: as the inaugural Chair of Information Integration at the U.S. National War College, where she designed the first Information Operations concentration and taught senior military and civilian leaders to understand information as both infrastructure and influence in geopolitical competition; as CEO of the World Future Society, repositioning the organization for the digital era; and at Deloitte, where she built strategic foresight capabilities for government clients navigating technological and democratic disruption. She founded Prescient, a boutique foresight consultancy, advising public and private sector leaders on institutional adaptation in periods of systemic uncertainty.

Her scholarship and advisory work address the governance challenges posed by AI, the weaponization of information environments, and the institutional capacities required for anticipatory policymaking. She has taught at Georgetown, Cornell, the New School and NYU, and serves as a trustee of the International Futures Forum.

Education

• Ph.D. in Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, New York University
• Master of Fine Arts, Poetry, Cornell University
• Bachelor of Arts, English, Columbia University

Honors and Awards

• Honorary Master of National Security Strategy, U.S. National War College
• Research Fellowship, Countering Violent Extremism, EastWest Institute
• Fulbright Fellowship, Amman, Jordan

Selected Publications

• "Op-Ed: It’s too late to envision a future without Facebook — or at least the world it built," Los Angeles Times,  February 20, 2022
• "Maximizing the Power of Strategic Foresight," Joint Force Quarterly 95, 2019
• Strategic Narrative: A Framework for Accelerating Innovation. A Practical Guide for Leaders and Organizations. Independently published, 2018
• Fighting Terrorists: Needed, A More Effective Battle of Ideas,” The Globalist, July 17, 2016
• "Reevaluating the Role of Information in National Strategy and Policy Making,” in American Strategy and Purpose, Council for Emerging National Security Affairs, 2014.
• "How Power Really Works in the 21st Century: Beyond Soft, Hard and Smart,” The Globalist, 2012

Selected Presentations and Briefings

• “Innovating Approaches to Geopolitical Risk,” Enterprise Risk Management Summit, Raleigh, NC, 2025.
• “Governance of Emerging and Disruptive Technologies: Shaping Public Policy Through a Foresight Lens,” CIVICA Global Forum, Madrid, 2025.
• “Toward Symbiosis: How Is Our Relationship with Algorithmic Life-Forms Evolving?” Moderator, Dubai Future Forum, 2024.
• Keynote, Demandbase Customer Advisory Board, “Is an American GDPR on the way?” Sonoma, CA 2022.
• "Using the Power of Uncertainty to Shape the Future," Keynote, Norwegian Government Agency for Financial Management, Oslo, 2020.
• Keynote, “The Power of Integration in a Complex and Connected Age,” International Integrated Reporting Conference, London, 2019.
• “America’s Role in a Changing World,” Atlantic Council Global Strategy Forum,  2016.
• "Reducing Future Risk in a Complex, Messy, Noisy World,” US Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Alexandria, VA, 2017
• "Social Networks: Co-Existence and the Right to Privacy,” Prospectiva del Mundo Mexico 2015, Mexico City, Mexico, 2015
• "The Middle East in 2030: a Futurist’s Perspective,” Henriette van Lynden Lectures, Netherlands