Ken Allen is a Senior Research Analyst with DGI’s Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis, where he focuses on China’s military organizational structure, personnel, education, training, and foreign relations with particular emphasis on the PLA Air Force. During 21 years in the U.S. Air Force, he served as a Chinese and Russian linguist and intelligence analyst with tours in Taiwan (U.S. Embassy Defense Attaché Office), Berlin, Japan (5th Air Force), PACAF Headquarters, China, and Washington DC (Defense Intelligence Agency’s Joint Military Attaché School). From 1987-1989, he served as the Assistant Air Attaché in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and was inducted into the Defense Attaché Hall of Fame in 1997. He has a B.A. degree from the University of California at Davis and the University of Maryland and a M.A. degree from Boston University. He has written numerous monographs, book chapters, and journal articles, some of which are listed below.

Publications include:

Monographs:

China’s Foreign Military Relations, Kenneth Allen and Eric McVadon, The Henry L. Stimson Center, Washington DC, 1999.

China’s Air Force Enters the 21st Century Kenneth Allen, Jonathan Pollack, and Glen Krumel, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, 1995.

Book Chapters:

"Right-Sizing The PLA Air Force: New Operational Concepts Define A Smaller, More Capable Force," with Kevin Lanzit in Right Sizing the People’s Liberation Army: Exploring the Contours of China’s Military, Dr. Andrew Scobell and Roy Kamphausen, eds., Strategic Studies Institute, Carlisle, PA, 2007.

"Air Force Deterrence and Escalation Calculations for a Taiwan Strait Conflict: China, Taiwan, and the United States," in Assessing the Threat: The Chinese Military and Taiwan’s Security, Michael Swaine, Andrew Yang, Evan Medeiros, and Oriana Mastro, eds., Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2007.

"Controlling the Airspace Over the Taiwan Strait" with Jeffrey Allen in If China Attacks Taiwan: Military Strategy, Politics and Economics, Steve Tsang, ed., London: Routledge Press, 2005.

"Predicting PLA Leader Promotions," with John Corbett in Civil-Military Change in China: Elites, Institutes, and Ideas After the 16th Party Congress, Dr. Andrew Scobell and Dr. Larry Wortzel, eds., Strategic Studies Institute, Carlisle, PA, 2004.

"The PLA Air Force’s Mobile Offensive Operations," in Taiwan’s Security and Air Power: Taiwan’s Defence against the Air Threat from Mainland China, Martin Edmonds, ed., Routledge Curzen Press, London, 2003.

"PLA Air Force: Lessons Learned 1949-2002," in The Lessons of History: The Chinese People’s Liberation Army at 75, Laurie Burkitt, Dr. Andrew Scobell, and Dr. Larry Wortzel, eds., Strategic Studies Institute, Carlisle, PA, 2003.

"Introduction to the PLA’s Administrative and Operational Structure" and "PLA Air Force Organization," in The People’s Liberation Army As Organization, James Mulvenon and Andrew Yang, eds, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, 2002.

"Logistics Support for PLA Air Force Campaigns," in China’s Growing Military Power: Perspectives on Security, Ballistic Missiles, and Conventional Capabilities, Andrew Scobell and Larry M. Wortzel, eds, Strategic Studies Institute, Carlisle, PA, 2002.

"China’s Perspective on Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control" in Controlling Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons: Obstacles and Opportunities, Jeffrey A. Larsen and Kurt J. Klingenberger, eds., Air University Press, July 2001.

"PLA Air Force Operations and Modernization," in The People’s Liberation Army After Next, Susan M. Puska, ed., Strategic Studies Institute, Carlisle, PA, 2000.

"PLA Air Force Logistics and Maintenance--What has Changed?," in The People’s Liberation Army in the Information Age, James Mulvenon and Andrew Yang, eds, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, 1999.

Conference Papers:

"Military Exchanges with Chinese Characteristics: The PLA Experience with Military Relations" with Heidi Holz in Carlisle, PA, November 2009.

"PLA Diplomacy in Asia: Content and Consequences" in Taipei, December 2006.

"PLA Air Force: 2006-2010" in Taipei, November 2005.

"PLA Air Force Offensive Air Campaigns" in Taipei, January 2003.

"Future U.S. Military Relations with Taiwan and China" in Taipei, June 2002.

"Asia-Pacific Strategic Structure vs. Taiwan Issue" in Beijing, April 2002.

"Assessing the Future of China-Japan Relations: The Military/Security Dimension" in Washington DC, March 2002.

"The PLA Navy’s Foreign Relations" in Washington DC, June 2001.

"The PRC’s Military Modernization and Taiwan’s Security" in Taiwan, December 2000.

Articles:

"PLA Air Force Foreign Relations" in Chinese Military Update, RUSI, London, December 2005.

"Understanding the PLA’s Organizational Structure" in Strategic Comments, the Institute for International Strategic Studies (IISS), London, August 2005.

"The PLA’s Path Toward Transparency" in Chinese Military Update, RUSI, London, July 2005.

"Reforms in the PLA Air Force," in China Brief, Jamestown Foundation, Washington DC, July 2005.

"China’s Foreign Military Relations 2003-2004" in Chinese Military Update, RUSI, London, February 2005.

"History of the PLA’s Ground Force Organizational Structure and Military Regions" in Chinese Military Update, RUSI, London, May 2004.

"Survey of English-Language Books on the PLA" in Chinese Military Update, RUSI, London, December 2003.

"PLA Officer and Enlisted Corps Recruitment, Grades, and Ranks" in Chinese Military Update, Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies (RUSI), London, May 2003.

"Defense Reform in China--The PLA Air Force" with Richard Latham in Problems of Communism, May-June 1991.