On April 9, the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) convened its annual Kelleher Forum in honor of founding director, Dr. Catherine M. Kelleher. This year’s featured speaker, Dr. Fiona Cunningham of the University of Pennsylvania, discussed how China has been using information age technologies to defend and advance its core objectives despite conventional military power asymmetries without changing its long-standing commitment not to use nuclear weapons first.
This year’s forum comes at a milestone moment–the center’s fortieth anniversary. In her opening remarks, CISSM Director Nancy Gallagher reflected on Kelleher’s enduring influence.
“CISSM got its start in the mid-1980s because Catherine convinced several foundation leaders and academic champions to fund interdisciplinary research centers where scholars could bring their expertise to bear on some of the most pressing security problems of that time,” Gallagher said. “Catherine was way ahead of her time…and 40 years later, her work is more important than ever.”
While Kelleher passed away three years ago, CISSM continues to advance her legacy through research, mentorship and public engagement. The Kelleher Forum is the center’s signature event of the academic year, and invited speakers embody Kelleher’s commitment to intellectual rigor and her fearless dedication to elevating women’s voices in critical security policy debates.
Gallagher highlighted how Cunningham’s scholarship advances understanding of questions that also animated much of Kelleher’s work: “Fiona is at the forefront of efforts to understand how political and organizational factors interact with advances in military technology in ways that can make the world safer or more dangerous,” she noted.
Drawing on her recent book, “Under the Nuclear Shadow: China’s Information-Age Weapons in International Security,” Cunningham examined China’s distinct approach to investing in cyber operations, counterspace capabilities and precision conventional missiles to achieve coercive leverage. These tools, she suggested, offer China a way to compete and signal resolve while putting to onus for crossing the nuclear threshold on the United States.
Central to Cunningham’s argument is the concept of “strategic substitution.” Chinese leaders, she explained, turned to emerging technologies that could provide faster, more credible options for influencing adversaries. This shift reflected a transformation in how states operate under the shadow of nuclear weapons: competition increasingly occurs below the nuclear threshold, but still with significant consequences for escalation dynamics and crisis stability.
Cunningham’s research leveraged extensive Chinese-language sources and expert interviews, providing students, scholars, staff and external guests a rare window into understanding how Chinese strategists think about deterrence in the modern era. Her findings underscored how technological advances–from cyberwarfare to counterspace capabilities–are redefining the security landscape.
Learn more about Cunningham’s research. For those interested in continuing Kelleher’s legacy, consider contributing to the Catherine M. Kelleher Fellowship Fund for International Security Studies, which supports outstanding graduate students at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, committed to addressing complex global security challenges. Learn more about the fund and contribute online.
