Genna Lehman

Genna Lehman is a Non-Resident Fellow in the United States Studies Centre's Economic Security Program. Genna is a Sir Roland Wilson Pat Turner PhD Scholar at the Australian National University with more than 15 years of government experience in trade, foreign and national security policy. Genna has developed expertise in translating geoeconomic risk into actionable policy, including through her work in the Office of the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, and on the Quad, the WTO and the East Asia Summit.

Genna's doctoral research examines Japan's economic security and industrial policies with a focus on critical minerals and semiconductors. Japan's economic security leadership — from its post-2010 rare earth crisis response to the landmark 2022 Economic Security Promotion Act — offers some of the most developed policy architecture among US allies. Genna's research investigates questions at the heart of economic security: how allies and partners can cooperate to reduce supply chain vulnerability, build sovereign capability in critical technologies, and coordinate industrial policy responses to strategic competition. Drawing on Japan’s experience, her research will draw actionable lessons for Australia and identify opportunities for international cooperation to address shared economic security challenges.

As an Australian official, Genna supported Australia’s efforts to elevate the Quad partnership between Australia, the United States, Japan and India to a leader-level forum and shaped its agenda on advanced technologies and supply chain resilience. She has also served as a diplomat in Bangkok, represented Australia at the United Nations in New York, and led policy work on energy and resources, trade law, and technology and national security. Her work bridges academic analysis and the practical demands of policymaking, with a sustained focus on how partners can best evaluate the trade-offs between economic integration and security risk.