MacKenna J. Rawlins was a Research Associate for the Stimson Center’s Defense Strategy and Planning team as part of the Strategic Foresight Hub. She’s also affiliated with Stimson’s Reimagining US Grand Strategy team and currently leads a research project examining the effects of the US-China Trade War. Rawlins recently updated the dataset used for statistical analysis in Military Coercion and U.S. Foreign Policy: The Use of Force Short of War (Routledge 2020), a book on U.S. strategy and military operations since the end of the Cold War.
Her areas of expertise include Chinese military innovation and economic policies. She has working proficiency in Mandarin and skills in data- and text-analysis. Rawlins graduated magna cum laude from the California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo in 2021 with a BA in Political Science, Global Politics and a Minor in Asian Studies. She also holds a Master of Chinese Economics and Political Affairs (MCEPA) with a focus on Foreign Relations and Security from the School of Global Policy & Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. She is certified in Python, R, and Data Management, and wrote her graduate thesis on the effects of the Belt & Road Initiative on the economy and public opinion of China in Indonesia and Nigeria. She is an Evermay Visionary and a participant in the Young Professionals Briefing Series at the Council on Foreign Relations.
