Elsa B. Kania is an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. Her research focuses on Chinese military innovation and emerging technologies. At CNAS, she contributes to the Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Initiative and the “Securing Our 5G Future” program, while acting as a member of the Digital Freedom Forum and the research team for the Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and National Security.

Ms. Kania works in support of the U.S. Air Force’s China Aerospace Studies Institute through its Associates Program, is a Non-Resident Fellow in Indo-Pacific Security with the Institute for the Study of War, and is a Non-Resident Fellow with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s International Cyber Policy Centre. She also serves as a Policy Advisor for the non-profit Technology for Global Security (T4GS), contributes to the Party Watch Initiative at the Center for Advanced China Research, co-founded the China Cyber and Intelligence Studies Institute (CCISI), a non-profit research collaboration, and was a Research Fellow with the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) at Georgetown University. Ms. Kania has been invited to testify before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, and the National Commission on Service. She was named an official “Mad Scientist” by the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command and was a 2018 Fulbright Specialist in Australia with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Currently, Elsa is a PhD candidate in Harvard University’s Department of Government, and she is also a graduate of Harvard College (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa). Her thesis was awarded the James Gordon Bennett Prize, and her dissertation will examine Chinese military learning and innovation in historical perspective. Her prior professional experience includes time with FireEye, the Department of Defense, Long Term Strategy Group, and the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy. While at Harvard, she has worked as a research assistant at the Belfer Center and the Weatherhead Center. She was a Boren Scholar in Beijing, China, and she maintains professional proficiency in Mandarin Chinese. Her views are her own.