Xunchao Zhang

Xunchao  Zhang is the Social Sciences | Humanities International Security fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and a Ph.D. candidate in the Political Science Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests encompass the political psychology of interstate conflict, public opinion, and the domestic politics of foreign policy. His dissertation challenges traditional deterrence paradigms by investigating why military retaliation often escalates conflicts; it proposes that retaliation is often driven by a desire for revenge arising from ingroup suffering, demonstrating how cycles of conflict can emerge endogenously—even under perfect information—without relying on misperceptions or security dilemma dynamics.