Dr. Albert S. Willner
Director, China Security Affairs Group, CNA
Before joining CNA, he was an associate dean at Georgia Gwinnett College and a China Research Center associate in Atlanta. His research interests include Chinese defense policy, China-Taiwan security, and U.S.-China military relations. He holds a Ph.D. in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia. A retired U.S. Army colonel, Dr. Willner was the first active-duty U.S. Defense Attaché equivalent since 1979 assigned to Taiwan, in charge of a team representing U.S. Department of Defense interests and supporting U.S. Pacific Command initiatives. Previously, he served as a rotary-wing aviation commander and staff officer and in Defense Department positions coordinating Asia-Pacific strategy, plans, and policy, and providing regional military analyses. He also served as the Director of International Relations and National Security Studies in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point. He is a graduate of the Chinese People's Liberation Army National Defense University's International Symposium Course in Beijing and the British Ministry of Defense Language School in Hong Kong, where he studied Mandarin. Dr. Willner is co-editor of China's Nuclear Future (Lynne Rienner, 2006) and is the author or co-author of numerous papers.
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