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 where she advised OSD on defense relations between the Department of Defense (DoD) and the People’s Liberation Army, including crisis management and strategic stability issues. Prior to joining 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. She has published and conducted analysis on China’s foreign policy, U.S.-Taiwan relations, and the PLA’s space, cyber, and nuclear capabilities. Rachael is pursuing her Master’s at Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree 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.