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 and Professor at the School of International Service. Prior to joining AU, she was founder and Director of both the International Security Program and the Center for Security Studies at George Mason University. From 2007 to 2011, Prof. Cronin was a faculty member and director of the core course on War and Statecraft at the U.S. National War College where she also led or co-led field studies in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, India, Pakistan, Mexico, and Colombia. Her career has combined academic positions and government service. Prof. Cronin came to the war college from Oxford University (Nuffield College), where she was Academic Director of Studies for the Oxford/Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War from 2005 to 2007. She also served as Specialist in Terrorism at the Congressional Research Service, where she was responsible for advising Members of Congress in the aftermath of 9/11. She has also served in the U.S. Executive branch, including in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy. Prof. Cronin frequently consults at the most senior levels of the U.S. government. She is widely published on strategy and nonstate actors. Her most recent book is How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns, published by Princeton University Press, recently translated into Chinese and Arabic. In 2017, Robin Wright of The New Yorker called it a “landmark study.” Her next book, to be published in late 2018, will focus on emerging technologies and their use by violent nonstate actors. Prof. Cronin is a regular contributor to academic and general interest audiences including Foreign Affairs, International Security, and Survival. She also frequently does media interviews for outlets including BBC (Start the Week), CNN, NPR (Morning Edition, All Things Considered), The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal among many others. She has repeatedly spoken at the World Economic Forum (where she was Chairman of the Global Agenda Council on Terrorism), the Council on Foreign Relations (where she is a member), the IISS (London), and many other national and international venues.