Yasir Atalan is a Data Fellow in the Futures Lab at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He completed his PhD in political science at American University. His research focuses on technology and international security, with a particular emphasis on the role of artificial intelligence in future warfare. He examines how AI agents can be integrated into defense systems by reshaping military bureaucracy and enabling agentic workflows. Atalan’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, CNN, Financial Times, Business Insider, War on the Rocks, and Defense One, as well as in peer-reviewed journals. He also serves as a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Data Science at American University, where he contributes to computational social science projects. Previously, he worked as a replication analyst for the Political Analysis journal at Cambridge University Press. Atalan holds an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from King’s College London and a BS in political science and international relations from Bogaziçi University.