Global and International Studies Building, 1022
Research Summary
Rachel Hulvey is an Assistant Professor of International Studies at Indiana University. She studies how rising powers attempt to reshape international order, with a particular focus on China’s strategies in cyberspace. Her book, Discourse Power: How China Shapes Cyber Order, examines how China and the United States compete to define global cybersecurity rules. The book shows how China deploys narratives—most prominently promoting the idea of “cyber sovereignty”—to build coalitions and attract support for an order aligned with its preferences. Her work draws on elite interviews in Shanghai and Beijing, survey experiments with diplomats, and text analysis of key venues such as the Internet Governance Forum, International Telecommunications Union, World Internet Conference, and UN cybersecurity negotiations. More broadly, she contributes to debates on international order, great power competition, soft power, and norm diffusion in international politics.
Educational Background
- Ph.D., Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
- M.A., International Affairs, Columbia University
- B.S., University of Virginia
Regions of Interest
- China
- East Asia
Research Topics
- Cyber governance
- Chinese foreign policy
- Great power competition
- Soft power
Representative Publications
- Hulvey, R. A., & Simmons, B. A. (2025). Borders in cyberspace: Digital sovereignty through a bordering lens. International Studies Quarterly, 69 (3).
- Hulvey, R.A, Discourse Power: How China Shapes Cyber Order (book manuscript in progress)