Kaia Haney

Kaia Haney is an expert in African security, specializing in strategic competition on the continent and the African security environment. She is also closely involved in CNA's work on mis- and dis-information and domestic terrorism. Her CNA projects include a study analyzing the People’s Republic of China’s environmental, financial, and military activities across the African continent, a report exploring the psychological mechanisms of disinformation, and a case study on information campaigns by Russia and Ukraine in Nigeria during the Russia-Ukraine war. She also coauthored a report analyzing data from the Domestic Terrorism Offender Level Database—developed by CNA for the Department of Justice—to answer the question, "Are domestic terrorist attacks actually crimes of despair?" Haney received the CNA CEO Teamwork Award in 2021.

Prior to joining CNA, Haney worked at the State Department, supporting both the Bureau of African Affairs and the Foreign Service Institute, and held a year-long fellowship with the Global Network Initiative, an internet freedom nonprofit. Before that, she spent three years leading communications for the cybersecurity and artificial intelligence start-up Darktrace.

Haney has a Master of Science degree in foreign service from Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Duke University.