Hosting exceptional international policy scholars and practitioners has been a lunchtime tradition at CISSM for over 30 years. Typically held Thursday afternoons from 12-1:15pm during the school year, each CISSM Global Forum features an invited speaker from the greater DC area to speak on a policy-relevant topic of their choice, followed by Q&A with the audience of faculty, staff and students. Speakers may present on their latest policy-relevant research or test out new ideas about forthcoming projects to advance knowledge and practice in their respective fields.
About the Speaker
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 Christopher H. Browne Center for International Politics at the University of Pennsylvania.
Cunningham's research interests lie the intersection of technology and conflict, with an empirical focus on China. Fiona’s first book Under the Nuclear Shadow: China’s Information-Age Weapons in International Security (Princeton University Press, 2024) 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 appeared in academic and policy-oriented outlets including International Security, Security Studies and The Washington Quarterly. She has held fellowships at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She has conducted fieldwork at the Renmin University of China, supported by a China Confucius Studies Program research fellowship. Her research has also been supported by the Korea National Commission for UNESCO, Ploughshares Fund, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada, Stanton Foundation and the Smith Richardson Foundation.
Cunningham 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.
She 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. Previously, she was an assistant professor of political science and international affairs at the George Washington University.