Elsa B. Kania

Adjunct Fellow, Technology and National Security Program

@ebkania
Press: cstevens@cnas.org
ekania@cnas.org
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Elsa B. Kania is an Adjunct Fellow with the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Her research focuses on Chinese military innovation in emerging technologies in support of the Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Initiative at CNAS, where she also acts as a member of the research team for the new Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and National Security. Her analytic interests include Chinese military modernization, information warfare, and defense science and technology. She has been invited to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC). Elsa is an independent analyst, consultant, and co-founder of the China Cyber and Intelligence Studies Institute. She was a 2018 Fulbright Specialist and is a Non-Resident Fellow with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s International Cyber Policy Centre. Elsa works in support of the China Aerospace Studies Institute through its Associates Program, and she is a policy advisor for the non-profit Technology for Global Security. Elsa has also been named an official “Mad Scientist” by the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command.

Elsa is a PhD student in Harvard University's Department of Government, and she is a graduate of Harvard College (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa). Her thesis on the evolution of the PLA’s strategic thinking on information warfare was awarded the James Gordon Bennett Prize. Her prior professional experience includes time with the Department of Defense, the Long Term Strategy Group, FireEye, Inc., and the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy. While at Harvard, she has worked as a research assistant at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Elsa was a Boren Scholar in Beijing, China, and she has professional proficiency in Mandarin Chinese.

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