Area of Expertise

Emerging technologies and their implications for security; terrorism and counterterrorism; international and U.S. security policy; how terrorism ends; Russia; Europe; the Middle East; North Africa; South Asia; North America

Additional Information

Audrey Kurth Cronin is Founding Director of the Center for Security, Innovation and New Technology at American University. Her career has encompassed positions in both academia and government service. From 2005 to 2007 prior to joining AU, she served as Academic Director of Studies for the Oxford/Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War at the war college from Oxford University. She also has served as Specialist in Terrorism at the Congressional Research Service, responsible for advising Members of Congress in the aftermath of 9/11, and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy. She frequently consults at the most senior levels of the U.S. government. Prof. Cronin is the author of How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns (Princeton University Press), which The New Yorker labelled a “landmark study.” Her latest book, Power to the People: How Open Technological Innovation is Arming Tomorrow’s Terrorists (Oxford University Press, 2020), analyzes the risks and opportunities of emerging technologies including drones, robotics, 3D printing, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, and particularly their use by terrorists, insurgents and other private actors. The book was included in Foreign Affairs’ “Best of 2019” list and was short-listed for the 2020 Lionel Gelber prize. Prof. Cronin’s commentary and analysis frequently appears in Foreign Affairs, International Security, Survival, BBC, CNN, NPR (Morning Edition, All Things Considered), The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, among many other media outlets.