Lauren Barney

Lauren Barney is a Program Specialist at the U.S. Department of State’s Office of China Affairs. Prior to her time at State, Lauren was a Research Associate at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), where she focused on national security topics and a Chinese analyst at SOSi Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis. Lauren interned at the U.S. Department of Commerce where she briefed high-level officials on economic and trade issues between the U.S., China, Taiwan, and Mongolia. She earned a Master’s Degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Conflict Management and a graduate certificate from the Hopkins Nanjing Center in Chinese Studies, with a focus on geopolitical resource conflict and multi-party negotiations. Lauren is proficient in Mandarin, Persian (Farsi), and Hebrew. She is a 2020 energy security fellow at Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) and a 2021-2022 Alexander Hamilton Society Security and Strategy Seminar Fellow.