Fiona Cunningham

Fiona Cunningham is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a Faculty Fellow at Perry World House and affiliated with the Center for the Study of Contemporary China and the Browne Center for International Politics at the University of Pennsylvania. Fiona was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation in 2018-2019.

Fiona’s research interests lie the intersection of technology and conflict, with an empirical focus on China. Her first book Under the Nuclear Shadow: China’s Information-Age Weapons in International Security (Princeton University Press, 2025) examines China’s distinctive approach to the dilemma of coercing an adversary under the shadow of nuclear war, which relies on substitutes for nuclear threats. Her research has been published in International Security, Security Studies, The Texas National Security Review, and The Washington Quarterly. Fiona's work has been supported by the Ploughshares Fund, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and the Smith Richardson Foundation. Fiona has also held fellowships at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Fiona is a research affiliate with the MIT Security Studies Program and holds nonresident affiliations with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and National Security College at the Australian National University.

Fiona received her Ph.D. in Political Science from MIT in 2018. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New South Wales and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Sydney, both with first class honors. From 2019 to 2021, she was an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the George Washington University.