Kristen Gunness
Kristen Gunness has over 15 years experience in providing perspective, expertise, and targeted advice on China and East Asia with both private sector and military clients. She is Adjunct Fellow for China Affairs at the RAND Corporation, where she specializes in Chinese military and foreign policy issues. Formerly, Mrs. Gunness served as the Director of the Navy Asia Pacific Advisory Group at the Pentagon, where she advised the Chief of Naval Operations on security and foreign policy trends in East Asia. Prior to her position on the Navy staff, she was Senior Project Director on Chinese military and security affairs at CNA.
Mrs. Gunness has extensive experience studying, living, and working in China. She is a graduate of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, and has studied Mandarin at Beijing Capital Normal University and the Harbin Institute of Technology. In addition, she worked as a business consultant in a well-established Shanghai firm, where she spent several years consulting and traveling in China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Mrs. Gunness has written extensively on Chinese security, foreign, and economic affairs. She is the co-editor of Civil-Military Relations In Today’s China: Swimming In A New Sea (M.E. Sharpe, June 2006). She holds an MA in Security Studies from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.
