The thermal decomposition of cyanonitrene, NCN, was studied behind reflected shock waves in the temperature range 1790-2960 K at pressures near 1 and 4 bar. Highly diluted mixtures of NCN3 in argon were shock-heated to produce NCN, and concentration-time profiles of C atoms as reaction product were monitored with atomic resonance absorption spectroscopy at 156.1 nm. Calibration was performed with methane pyrolysis experiments. Rate coefficients for the reaction (NCN)-N-3 + M -> C-3 + N-2 + M (R1) were determined from the initial slopes of the C atom concentration-time profiles. Reaction R1 was found to be in the low-pressure regime at the conditions of the experiments. The temperature dependence of the bimolecular rate coefficient can be expressed with the following Arrhenius equation: k(1)(bim) = (4.2 +/- 2.1) x 10(14) exp[-242.3 kJ mol(-1)/(RT)] cm(3) mol(-1) s(-1). The rate coefficients were analyzed by using a master equation with specific rate coefficients from RRKM theory. The necessary molecular data and energies were calculated with quantum chemical methods up to the CCSD(T)/CBS//CCSD/cc-pVTZ level of theory. From the topography of the potential energy surface, it follows that reaction R1 proceeds via isomerization of NCN to CNN and subsequent C-N bond fission along a collinear reaction coordinate without a tight transition state. The calculations reproduce the magnitude and temperature dependence of the rate coefficient and confirm that reaction R1 is in the low-pressure regime under our experimental conditions.