How and why China has pursued information-age weapons to gain leverage against its adversaries
How can states 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. In Under the Nuclear Shadow, Fiona Cunningham examines this distinctive aspect of China's post–Cold War deterrence strategy, developing an original theory of "strategic substitution." When crises with the United States highlighted the inadequacy of China's existing military capabilities, Cunningham argues, China pursued information-age weapons that promised to rapidly provide credible leverage against adversaries.
Drawing on hundreds of original Chinese-language sources and interviews with security experts in China, Cunningham provides a rare and candid glimpse from Beijing into the information-age technologies that are reshaping how states gain leverage in the twenty-first century. She offers unprecedented insights into the trajectory of China's military modernization, as she details the strengths and weaknesses of China's strategic substitution approach. Under the Nuclear Shadow also looks ahead at the uncertain future of China's strategic substitution approach and briefly explores too how other states might seize upon the promise of emerging technologies to address weaknesses in their own military strategies. Fiona S. Cunningham is assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. "Using often hard-to-find PRC texts, and interviews with credible PRC interlocutors, Cunningham delivers a granular understanding of the evolution of China's missile, information, and counter-space forces. She makes a sophisticated case that a local war problem, Taiwan, rather than a coherent grand strategy for global hegemony, may be driving this modernization."-Alastair Iain Johnston, Harvard University
"This is an important book. Cunningham presents a powerful theory with major implications for China's military posture and U.S.-China competition. Her careful and painstaking qualitative work paints a vivid and compelling portrait of Chinese strategic thinking."-Joshua Rovner, American University
"Drawing on a stunning array of new sources, Fiona Cunningham offers deep insight into China's military modernization and nuclear strategy. Her brilliant, fascinating book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand emerging technologies, the U.S.-China relationship, and the future of war."-Caitlin Talmadge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"This book accomplishes a magisterial set of tasks. The book addresses key strategic aspects of China's military modernization in a systematic fashion. The empirical sections are thoroughly researched and incorporate a breathtaking number of superb sources. Given the increasingly closed nature of China, this material will not be surpassed for a long while. There is no comparable book."-Christopher Twomey, Naval Postgraduate School "[An] excellent book. . . . Highly recommended."
