Fiona S. Cunningham

Fiona Cunningham is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, Dr. Cunningham was an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the George Washington University from 2019-21. Her research interests lie the intersection of technology and conflict, with an empirical focus on China. Fiona’s current book project explains how and why China threatens to use space weapons, cyber-attacks and conventional missiles as substitutes for nuclear threats in limited wars.

Dr. Cunningham completed a Ph.D. at the Political Science Department at MIT in 2018, where she was also a member of the Security Studies Program. She has held fellowships at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Stanford University, Harvard University and Renmin University of China. She spent over a year doing field work in China in 2015-7, supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation, MIT Center for International Studies, and the China Confucius Institute.