The Mershon Center for International Security Studies is pleased to announce that Fiona S. Cunningham has been selected to receive the 2025 Edgar S. Furniss Book Award for Under the Nuclear Shadow: China’s Information-Age Weapons in International Security (Princeton University Press, 2025). 

"As director of the Mershon Center, I am delighted that Fiona Cunningham’s book won our Furniss prize,” said Mitch Lerner. “It is a wonderful work, one that sheds new light on the underpinnings of Chinese military force posture and challenges broader assumptions about strategic development. My thanks to the affiliate committee members who made the selection. We received more submissions than in previous years, so their summer reading list was exceptionally long, but they have made a terrific choice.”

Members of the Furniss Book Award selection committee included Geoffrey Parker, Theodora Dragostinova, Dima Arzyutov, and Haifeng Huang. Committee Chair Geoffrey Parker praised the book as "a sophisticated, highly original interpretation of China’s unique contemporary deterrence strategies,” and a "remarkable achievement for a first book.”

“I am thrilled and delighted that the selection committee chose Under the Nuclear Shadow as the recipient of the Edgar S. Furniss prize this year," said Fiona Cunningham. "It is a great honor to receive a prize named after such an impactful scholar in the field of international security."

An assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, Cunningham 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. Her research lies at the intersection of technology and conflict, with an empirical focus on China, and has appeared in academic and policy-oriented outlets including International Security, Security Studies, and The Washington Quarterly. 

Under the Nuclear Shadow 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. It examines how states can use military force to achieve their political aims without triggering a catastrophic nuclear war. Among the states facing this dilemma of fighting limited wars, only China has given information-age weapons such a prominent role. While other countries have preferred the traditional options of threatening to use nuclear weapons or fielding capabilities for decisive conventional military victories, China has instead chosen to rely on offensive cyber operations, counterspace capabilities, and precision conventional missiles to coerce its adversaries. 

The Edgar S. Furniss Book Award commemorates the founding director of the Mershon Center and is conferred on a first book in English that makes an exceptional contribution to the understanding of international, national, or human security. 

An award and presentation event will be held in the near future. Stay tuned for details.