Rachael Burton is a Senior Policy Analyst on the Security and Foreign Affairs team at the Commission. She previously served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) from 2019 to 2023 as the Country Director for China. Prior to joining the Department of Defense (DoD), she was the Deputy Director at the Project 2049 Institute where she managed the Institute’s research and programming. She has previously worked at the Carnegie China Center and the National Bureau for Asian Research. Rachael holds an MA in Security Studies from Georgetown University and a BA in International Relations and Conflict Resolution from George Washington University. Rachael spent two years working in a remote rural village in China’s Yunnan Province where she taught English at a public Middle School. She reads and speaks Chinese.
Areas of Interest and Expertise
- U.S.-China defense relations, crisis management, and strategic stability
- China’s foreign policy and political warfare
- U.S.-Taiwan relations
- PLA’s space, cyber, and nuclear capabilities; and systems warfare