Dr. Xu is a senior lecturer in the School of International Studies at the Renmin University of China. She was a visiting scholar in the Geneva Center of Security Policy (2009-2010), and finished her post-doctoral studies at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva (2008-2009). In 2007, she was a Fulbright Scholar in the Walker Institute at the University of South Carolina. She received her first Ph.D. from the Renmin University of China and the second from Aichi University. She earned both her M.A. and B.A. from Renmin University and underwent master-level studies in the Center for American and Chinese Studies at the Johns Hopkins University.