Our Team

CNA China Studies' analysts bring diverse experiences and critical skills to their craft. All have lived, studied, or worked in the region. Some have had extensive careers in the foreign service, in the military, or in policy-making positions in the U.S. Government. And many have the critical language skills necessary to understand issues from a regional perspective.

China Specialists at CNA

David M. Finkelstein, Ph.D., a vice president at CNA, is the Director of CNA China Studies. He received his Ph.D. in Chinese history from Princeton University and studied Mandarin at Nankai University in Tianjin, China. A long-time student of Chinese and Asian affairs, he is widely published. His 1993 historical monograph, From Abandonment to Salvation: Washington’s Taiwan Dilemma, 1949-50 (GMU Press), was hailed in Presidential Studies Quarterly as “blazing a new trail” and as certain to “take an important place in the literature of U.S.-China relations in the mid-20th Century.”

Dr. Finkelstein is co-editor of China’s Leadership in the 21st Century: The Rise of the Fourth Generation (M.E. Sharpe, 2002), Chinese Warfighting: The PLA Experience Since 1949 (M.E. Sharpe, 2003), China’s Revolution in Doctrinal Affairs: Recent Trends in the Operational Art of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (CNA, 2005), and Civil-Military Relations in Today’s China: Swimming in a New Sea (M.E. Sharpe, 2006).

A retired U.S. Army officer, Dr. Finkelstein is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College, and the Army War College. He held command and staff positions at the platoon, company, battalion, and major Army command levels. He also held significant China-related positions at the Pentagon as an advisor to the Secretary of Defense and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, in addition to serving on the faculty at West Point, where he taught Chinese history.

Maryanne Kivlehan-Wise is the Director of the China Strategic Issues Group. Her research interests include Chinese politics and foreign policy, China’s media reforms, South China Sea and ASEAN issues, Chinese maritime law, and China’s new generation of leaders. She is the co-editor of China’s Leadership in the 21st Century: The Rise of the Fourth Generation (M.E. Sharpe, 2002) and the author of chapters in several edited volumes addressing Chinese security issues.

Ms. Kivlehan-Wise completed her undergraduate work at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She holds an M.A. in security policy studies from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University, and is a graduate of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, as well as Capital Normal University in Beijing, where she studied Mandarin.

Before joining CNA, she worked for an international nonprofit organization directing projects on Chinese and Mongolian affairs. She also spent time in Bosnia working with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in support of the 1997 municipal elections.

Albert S. Willner is the Director of the China Security Affairs Group at CNA. Before joining CNA in 2009, he was an associate dean at Georgia Gwinnett College. From 2005-2007 he served as the U.S. Defense Attaché equivalent in Taiwan representing Department of Defense interests there. A retired Army colonel, he served in multiple positions as a rotary wing aviator, Asia-Pacific strategic planner, and military analyst. From 2000-2004, he served at West Point where he taught international relations, U.S. government, and Chinese politics. His research interests include Chinese foreign policy, Asia-Pacific regional security, and U.S.-China defense relations. He holds a Ph.D. in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia.

James Bellacqua is an Asia analyst in the China Strategic Issues Group. Prior to joining CNA, he served as a Chinese media analyst and linguist for the U.S. Government’s Foreign Broadcast Information Service examining PRC media treatment of Chinese domestic politics and foreign affairs. He has also worked for CNN’s bureau in Beijing.

Mr. Bellacqua’s numerous research interests include Chinese internal security, media reform, and PRC foreign policy. He has written on the PRC’s system of emergency planning and response, Beijing’s Olympic security preparations, and China’s perceptions of its vulnerabilities to terrorist threats. He is the editor of The Future of China-Russia Relations (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, January 2010) and is currently researching bilateral ties between China and Vietnam.

Having lived, worked, studied, and traveled extensively throughout the People’s Republic of China for several years, Mr. Bellacqua speaks, reads, and writes Mandarin Chinese fluently. He is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies and has studied Mandarin Chinese in Guangxi and Heilongjiang provinces. He holds a B.A. in East Asian studies from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and an M.B.A. from American University.

Thomas J. Bickford is an Asia analyst in the China Security Affairs Group. Before joining CNA, he was an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where he taught international relations and Chinese politics. He is also a former associate director of the Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies. He is the author of several articles and book chapters on Chinese national security issues, including civil-military relations, defense economics, U.S. and Chinese policy towards Taiwan, professional military education, and internal security.

Dr. Bickford has lived and studied in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and has conducted extensive field research in China. He has a B.A. in East Asian studies from the University of Chicago, an M.S. in international studies from the London School of Economics, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dennis J. Blasko is an Asia analyst in the China Security Affairs Group. Mr. Blasko served for 23 years in the U.S. Army as a tactical and strategic Military Intelligence Officer and Foreign Area Officer specializing in China. Mr. Blasko served as an Army Attaché in Beijing from 1992 to 1995 and in Hong Kong from 1995 to 1996. He also served in infantry units in Germany, Italy, and Korea. He later worked in Washington, D.C., at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Headquarters Department of the Army (Office of Special Operations), and the National Defense University War Gaming and Simulation Center.  Mr. Blasko is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the Naval Postgraduate School. He has written numerous articles and chapters on the Chinese military and defense industries and is the author of The Chinese Army Today: Tradition and Transformation for the 21st Century (Routledge, December 2005).

Alan Burns is an Asia analyst in the China Strategic Issues Group. Before joining CNA, he was a Bridge Award fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research in Washington, D.C. He previously received a David L. Boren fellowship, funded by the National Security Education Program (NSEP), for the intensive study of Mandarin Chinese in Beijing.  Mr. Burns holds an M.A. in international relations from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, where he completed concentrations in strategic studies and international economics. He holds a B.A. in international studies and German, also from Johns Hopkins University. His research interests include civil-military relations in China and Chinese naval strategy. He speaks German and Mandarin Chinese.

Brad Daniels is the Program Assistant in the China Strategic Issues Group. Mr. Daniels holds a B.A. in international relations with a regional focus on East Asia, from Claremont McKenna College in Los Angeles. He has also studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Before joining CNA, he worked for the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives. Previously, he interned at the China Australia Governance Program in Beijing, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and a non-governmental organization in Delhi, India. His research interests include Sino-Middle Eastern relations, the internet in China, and Sino-Indian relations.

Patrick deGategno is an Asia analyst in the China Strategic Issues Group. Prior to joining CNA, he was associate director of the Asia Program at the Atlantic Council, organizing projects and researching trans-Atlantic engagement of Greater China, the two Koreas, and Southeast Asia. He was simultaneously associate director of the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Foresight Project, analyzing long-term global trends and their implications for the role of the United States in world affairs. Previously, he was an Asia regional analyst for iJET Intelligent Risk Systems, assessing political risk for businesses operating in China, Southeast Asia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. He was also a Douglas K. Bereuter Junior Associate in Asian Affairs at the Asia Foundation.

Mr. deGategno holds an M.A. in Asian studies, with concentrations in the politics, history, and economics of China, the two Koreas, and Southeast Asia, from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. He received his B.A. in cultural studies, with concentrations in Chinese and Southeast Asian history, politics, and sociology, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has lived, studied, and worked in Beijing, and he has Mandarin and French language skills.

Kerry Dumbaugh is an Asia analyst in the China Strategic Issues Group. From 1985 to 2009, she was a specialist in Asian studies with the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division at the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the policy research arm of the U.S. Congress, and served for a time as the head of the Asia Section. She has written extensively on a wide range of U.S. policy issues, including U.S. policy toward China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong; U.S. relations with Asian governments; and Congress’s role in U.S. foreign policy decisions.

Ms. Dumbaugh received an M.S. in national security studies from the U.S. National War College, an M.A. in Asian studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in East Asian studies (with a double major in music) from Wittenberg University. In 2009 she was named a senior fellow of the Wittenberg University East Asian Institute. Ms. Dumbaugh is also the moderator for a public TV program in the Washington, D.C., area, “The China Forum,” which conducts interviews and discussions on foreign policy issues with scholars, former government officials, and other experts in the Asia policy field.

Ian Easton is an Asia analyst in the China Security Affairs Group. Prior to joining CNA, he was a research fellow at the Project 2049 Institute, where he conducted research on Chinese military space and missile programs. He spent over four years in Taiwan, where he provided research and analysis for the Defense News Asia bureau chief, consulted for a Taiwan-based software company, and worked on translation projects for the Foundation on Asia-Pacific Peace Studies. He holds an M.A. in China studies from National Chengchi University in Taipei, and a B.A. in international studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his formal Mandarin language training at National Taiwan Normal University’s Mandarin Training Center in Taipei, and Fudan University in Shanghai.

Larry Ferguson is an Asia analyst in the China Strategic Issues Group. His research interests include the PRC-Taiwan economic relationship, PRC space and counterspace issues, PLA Navy training and modernization, China’s national security strategy, internal security in the PRC, and provincial and municipal governance in China.

Mr. Ferguson graduated magna cum laude from Boston University, with dual degrees in Chinese Studies and ancient Latin & Greek. He studied Mandarin at Boston University and at Capital Normal University in Beijing. He holds an M.A. in Asian Studies from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University.

Prior to joining CNA, Mr. Ferguson spent significant time in China as a student, teacher, and intern, and as both a public and private sector professional. He worked at the American Embassy in Beijing and for an American online marketing firm in Beijing. He also interned at Microsoft’s Beijing research laboratory. He has valuable language skills and on-the-ground knowledge of Beijing’s political, commercial, and cultural arenas.

Sherwood Goldberg (Woody) is a senior adviser on Asian affairs in CNA China Studies. Mr. Goldberg is a graduate of Dickinson College. He holds an M.A. in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania and a Juris Doctor from the Temple University School of Law.

Mr. Goldberg’s lifelong experiences in Asia and beyond encompass expertise in diplomatic, commercial, military, and legal endeavors. Among his many positions, he served as Chief of Staff to Alexander Haig during the latter’s tenure as Secretary of State; as a Special Assistant to the President and COO of United Technologies; and as an advisor on domestic and international issues at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. As the first Managing Director of Worldwide Associates, Inc., he focused on advancing U.S. corporate interests around the world. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Dickinson College; the Board of Visitors of the College of Liberal Arts, Temple University; and the D.C. Veterans’ Advisory Board. In April 2001, he was appointed by the Acting Secretary of the Army as the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army for Washington, D.C. (CASA).

Mr. Goldberg has traveled extensively throughout Asia and has deep, first-hand knowledge of Chinese and Asian political, security, and commercial affairs. During his many years of travel to China in government and business positions, he met multiple times with Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and a host of other national and provincial-level PRC elite. A retired colonel (U.S. Army Reserves), he spent nearly three decades on active and reserve duty, including tours in Vietnam, and as an instructor at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Tamara Hemphill is the Program Coordinator for CNA China Studies. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, she graduated magna cum laude from George Mason University. Her areas of academic interest include the history of the migration of diseases and their impact on social systems, the socio-cultural dynamics of insurgencies in Southeast Asia, and the influence of the environment on the development of culture and social institutions. Before joining CNA, Ms. Hemphill supported research on international security and national defense issues at the RAND Corporation, where she focused on homeland security initiatives, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and terrorism.

Heidi Holz is an Asia analyst in the China Strategic Issues Group. Ms. Holz is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where she received a master’s degree in security studies and a bachelor’s degree in Chinese and East Asian history. She studied Mandarin Chinese in Beijing at Peking University and Tsinghua University. While living in China, she taught English at various schools and appeared as a regular guest on Chinese-language talk shows. Her research interests are focused on Chinese military diplomacy, health issues in China (specifically the social, political, and structural impacts of disease in Chinese society) and traditional security issues.

Before joining CNA, Ms. Holz worked as a biodefense analyst and China specialist with the Division of Integrated Biodefense at Georgetown University’s Imaging Science and Information Systems Center, where she analyzed the frequency and causality of infectious diseases in various parts of China.

An accomplished linguist, Ms. Holz was previously a staff member at the Voice of America’s Mandarin Service, where she wrote programming in both Chinese and English, to include broad-cast programs for teaching English to VOA’s Chinese audience.

Lisa Hopkins is an Asia analyst in the China Security Affairs Group. Before joining CNA, she was an East and Southeast Asia strategic analyst at the Army Directed Studies Office where, as part of a Red Team, she conducted alternative analysis from non-U.S. perspectives.

Ms. Hopkins is a member of the first graduating class of the Chinese flagship program at Ohio State University, where she received an M.A. in applied Chinese. As part of the M.A. program, she studied and worked in Nanjing and Qingdao, People’s Republic of China. She also conducted field research and completed a thesis in Chinese on the education of migrant workers’ children. Her research interests include China–Southeast Asia relations, Chinese defense policy, and U.S.–China relations. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Alison Kaufman is an Asia analyst in the China Strategic Issues Group, where she has worked on issues related to China's and Taiwan's military culture, Chinese foreign and security policy, and cross-Strait relations. Prior to joining CNA, she worked for the World Bank's China program and at China Radio International in Beijing. She has also worked as a subject matter expert on Chinese affairs for a well-known consultancy. Her research interests include Chinese foreign policy, Chinese nationalism, cross-Strait issues, and U.S.-China relations.

Dr. Kaufman studied Chinese at Capital Normal University in Beijing and at the International Chinese Language Program in Taipei. She received her B.A. in East Asian Studies from Harvard University, and holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on Chinese political philosophy.

Anka Lee is an Asia analyst in the China Security Affairs Group. Before joining CNA, he was a senior research associate at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC). At the commission, Mr. Lee wrote chapters on worker rights and civil society in the 2010 and 2011 CECC annual reports, as well as shorter analytical briefs for congressional staffers. He assisted in the State Department's preparation for two rounds of U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue, and has conducted briefings for senior officials in the executive branch. His research interests include China's relationship with neighboring countries, U.S.-China relations, Chinese domestic stability, and assessment of China's leadership. His writings on Chinese history and politics have appeared in Time Magazine, NBC News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other publications.

Before beginning his work in China policy and international affairs, Mr. Lee was a legislative aide at the California Legislature. He also spent several years as a print and broadcast journalist covering political campaigns. A Truman National Security Fellow, Mr. Lee holds a master's in regional studies, East Asia, from Harvard University, and is a 2003 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. He speaks Cantonese and Mandarin.

Kathy Lewis is the Administrative and Program Assistant in the China Security Affairs Group. Prior to joining CNA China Studies, she was the Executive Assistant and Conference Coordinator to the Director, Center for Strategic Studies. She has supported the CNA National Security Seminar series and has been an employee of CNA for 20 years. Her educational background is in business management and training.

Peter Mackenzie is an Asia analyst in the China Security Affairs Group. Mr. Mackenzie has a master's degree in public policy and administration from Columbia University and a BA in Asian studies from Williams College. Prior to joining CNA, Mr. Mackenzie worked for the National Committee on United States-China Relations, researching the interaction between American and Chinese foreign policy think tanks. He previously worked for the International Republican Institute (IRI), first with IRI's China program and later as the director of IRI's East Africa office in Nairobi, Kenya. He has also worked on the Asia program at the Atlantic Council of the United States and coordinated the council's senior fellows program. After college, he taught English for one year at the Sun Yatsen University of Medical Sciences in Guangzhou. He studied Mandarin Chinese at Capital Normal University in Beijing and the Harbin Institute of Technology. His research interests include Chinese political reform and social change, China-Africa relations, PRC elite leadership dynamics, and Chinese national interests.

Julia Rosenfield is an Asia analyst in the China Security Affairs Group. Ms. Rosenfield received her B.A. in history and Chinese from Middlebury College. She also studied Chinese at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, the Harbin Institute of Technology, and Middlebury College’s renowned intensive summer language program. Ms. Rosenfield is also an alumna of the Williams College-Mystic Seaport Maritime Studies Program (Mystic, Connecticut), where her interests in both maritime trade and Chinese affairs culminated in the writing of a research paper titled The American China Trade: Beginnings, Development, and the Shanghai Experience.

At CNA, Ms. Rosenfield’s research has focused on Chinese political-military affairs and maritime issues. She is also interested in Chinese social, economic, and legal developments, as well as contemporary and historical gender and minority issues. Ms. Rosenfield is currently pursuing a master’s of science degree at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution of George Mason University.

Murray Scot Tanner (Scot) is an Asia analyst in the China Strategic Issues Group. Dr. Tanner has written and published widely on Chinese and East Asian politics and security issues, including internal security, social unrest, policing in China, Chinese leadership politics, China-Taiwan relations, and China-North Korea relations. He is the author of many books, monographs, and articles, including China Confronts Afghan Drugs: Law Enforcement Views of “The Golden Crescent” (CNA, March 2011), Chinese Economic Coercion Against Taiwan: A Tricky Weapon to Use (RAND, 2007), and The Politics of Lawmaking in China (Oxford University Press, 1998). He is also co-author of A Question of Balance: Political Context and Military Aspects of the China-Taiwan Dispute (RAND, 2009), and Chinese Responses to U.S. Military Transformation and Implications for the Department Of Defense (RAND, 2007). His articles, which have appeared in such journals as the Washington Quarterly, Comparative Politics, the China Quarterly, and the China Journal, include “Principals and Secret Agents: Central versus Local Control Over Policing and Obstacles to ‘Rule of Law’ in China” (China Quarterly, September 2007).

Before joining CNA in 2008, Dr. Tanner served as professor of political science at Western Michigan University, as senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, and as the co-chairman’s senior staff member for the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Dr. Tanner received his B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Catherine Welch is an Asia analyst in the China Strategic Issues Group. She holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in Asian & Middle Eastern studies, and a graduate certificate in Asian studies from the University of Cincinnati. She is currently pursuing a master’s of global affairs with a specialization in information technology policy at George Mason University. Before joining CNA, she worked for the Greater Cincinnati Chinese Chamber of Commerce and, most recently, at an energy consulting firm in Washington, D.C. She has Mandarin, Turkish, and French language skills. Her research interests include U.S.-China relations, U.S.-China cyber security issues, and Chinese energy and environmental trends.
 

To arrange an interview, contact:

Connie Custer, Vice President
Communications and Public Affairs
703.824.2100 (O), 703.585.6827 (C)