Elsa Kania
Elsa B. Kania is an adjunct fellow with the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, where she focuses on Chinese defense innovation in emerging technologies. She is an independent analyst, consultant, and co-founder of the China Cyber and Intelligence Studies Institute (CCISI), which will seek to become the premier venue for analysis and insights on China’s use of cyber and intelligence capabilities as instruments of national power. She is the author of the report “Battlefield Singularity: Artificial Intelligence, Military Revolution, and China’s Future Military Power.” You can follow her on Twitter @EBKania.
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Articles by Elsa Kania
China’s Military Biotech Frontier: CRISPR, Military-Civil Fusion, and the New Revolution in Military Affairs
Introduction China’s national strategy of military-civil fusion (军民融合, junmin ronghe) has highlighted biology as a priority. [1] It is hardly surprising that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is looking...
The Chinese Military Reforms and Transforms in the “New Era”
Introduction The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been undergoing a far-reaching transformation with strategic implications for the military balance in the region and beyond. Starting in 2015, the PLA...
Major Themes in China’s 2019 National Defense White Paper
Introduction On July 24, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) issued its first new national defense white paper (NDWP) since 2015 (Xinhua). “China’s National Defense in a New Era” attempts...
Learning Without Fighting: New Developments in PLA Artificial Intelligence War-Gaming
The Opportunities and Challenges of Intelligentization A lack of recent experience in combat is often characterized as a major liability and potential disadvantage for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA)...
Technological Entanglement? — Artificial Intelligence in the U.S.-China Relationship
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a new arena for engagement and competition between the United States and China. In July, China’s State Council published the New Generation AI Development Plan...
Disruption Under the Radar: Chinese Advances in Quantum Sensing
This piece builds upon prior research and analysis on Chinese advances in quantum information science and quantum technologies, previously featured in China Brief in the series “China’s Quantum Leap,” parts...
The PLA at 90: On the Road to Becoming a World-Class Military?
China recently celebrated the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) with a parade and military exercises at the Zhurihe Training Base in Inner Mongolia (CCTV,...
Swarms at War: Chinese Advances in Swarm Intelligence
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) anticipates that future warfare will be “unmanned, invisible, and silent” (“无人、无形、无声”战争), with ever higher degrees of “intelligentization” (智能化). [1] PLA strategists expect that future,...
Quantum Leap (Part 2): The Strategic Implications of Quantum Technologies
This is the second in a series of two articles that examines and evaluates the ramifications of Chinese advances in quantum information science. While part 1 reviewed China’s national framework...
Modernizing Military Intelligence: Playing Catchup (Part Two)
This two-part series is adapted from remarks delivered at The Jamestown Foundation’s Sixth Annual China Defense and Security Conference and chapter in China’s Evolving Military Strategy (2016). Part One addresses...
Quantum Leap (Part 1): China’s Advances in Quantum Information Science
This is the first in a series of two articles that examines and evaluates the ramifications of Chinese advances in quantum information science. While this initial article reviews China’s framework...
Holding Up Half the Sky? (Part 2)—The Evolution of Women’s Roles in the PLA
This is Part 2 of a two-part series on women in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Part 1 examined the historical trajectory of and context for the expansion of women’s...
Holding Up Half the Sky? (Part 1)—The Evolution of Women’s Roles in the PLA
This is Part 1 of a two-part series on the evolving roles of women in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Part 1 examines the historical trajectory of and context for...
The PLA’s Latest Strategic Thinking on the Three Warfares
Beijing’s response to the unfavorable South China Sea arbitration outcome has highlighted an important aspect of its military strategy, the “three warfares” (三战). Consisting of public opinion warfare (舆论战), psychological...
A Force for Cyber Anarchy or Cyber Order? —PLA Perspectives on ‘Cyber Rules’
In early June, the Eighth Round of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) “welcomed” apparent progress on cyber security, an issue that has been among the most contentious aspects...
The Human and Organizational Dimensions of the PLA’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems
PLA theorists see unmanned operations (无人作战) as integral elements of future warfare. For instance, in a January 2016 article, Xiao Tianliang, editor of the People’s Liberation Army National Defense University’...
The PLA’s Forthcoming Fifth-Generation Operational Regulations—The Latest “Revolution in Doctrinal Affairs”?
Based on reports in official media, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) appears to be preparing for the official release of its fifth-generation of operational regulations (第五代作战条令). The PLA’s operational regulations,...
The Latest Indication of the PLA’s Network Warfare Strategy
Comparing the Strategic Guidance for Military Struggle in Cyberspace from the 2013 and 2015 editions of The Science of Military Strategy The 2015 text of The Science of Military Strategy...