Category: Past Events

Registered guests will receive a separate WebEx invitation email with details
for joining the event a day before the event.

Note: This event is open to the public and on the record.

Speakers

Chang Huh has been serving as the Deputy Minister for International Affairs of the Ministry of Economy and Finance since February 2020. He has worked in various capacities both at home and abroad, including serving as the Director General for the Development Finance Bureau from 2018 to 2020 and as the Senior Director for the International Economic Policy Division from 2012 to 2013. Dr. Huh has also worked at the OECD as the Minister of the Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Korea (2015-2018) and at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as an advisor to the Executive Director of the Korean Office (2004-2005). He majored in International Economics at Seoul National University and received a Ph.D. in Economics from I.E.P. de Paris in July 2003.

Hee-Kwon Jung has been serving as the Director-General for the International Cooperation Bureau of the Ministry of Science and ICT since November 2019. He also served as the President of the Seoul Office of Central Radio Management Service of the Ministry of Science and ICT from 2018 to 2019. From 2014 to 2016, he worked as the Director of the Public-Private Joint Task Force for the Creative Economy on the Presidential Advisory Council for Science and Technology and held positions in the S&T Innovation Division, S&T Strategy Division, and S&T Policy Division of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. From 2009 to 2011, he was seconded to the OECD. In 2007, he worked as the Director of the Technology Innovation System Division of the Ministry of Science and Technology. He graduated from Seoul National University, majoring in International Economics, and acquired an M.A in Public Administration from the University of Missouri.

Moran Ki is a professor in the Department of Cancer Control and Population Health at the National Cancer Center Graduate School of Cancer Science and Policy (NCC-GCSP). Her expertise lies in infectious disease epidemiology and global health. She worked as a professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Eulji University from 1998 to 2013 and served as the Dean of Eulji University’s Graduate School of Public Health from 2005 to 2008 and again from 2011 to 2013. She received her Ph.D. from Hanyang University’s College of Medicine. She also received an M.P.H. in Public Health from Seoul National University and an M.D. in medicine from Hanyang University.

Moderator

Yonho Kim is Associate Research Professor of Practice and Associate Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies. He specializes in North Korea’s mobile telecommunications and U.S. policy towards North Korea. Kim is the author of North Korea’s Mobile Telecommunications and Private Transportation Services in the Kim Jong-un Era (2019) and Cell Phones in North Korea: Has North Korea Entered the Telecommunications Revolution? (2014). His research findings were covered by various media outlets, including Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Yonhap News, and Libération. Prior to joining GWIKS, he extensively interacted with the Washington policy circle on the Korean peninsula as Senior Researcher of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Senior Reporter for Voice of America’s Korean Service, and Assistant Director of the Atlantic Council’s Program on Korea in Transition. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University, and an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Registered guests will receive a separate WebEx invitation email with details
for joining the event a day before the event.

Note: This event is open to the public and on the record.

Speakers

Stephen Costello has been immersed in South Korean politics and foreign policy since 1990. He is the Director of the policy NGO AsiaEast.Org and columnist with The Korea Times in Seoul. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy Analysis from Syracuse University. Mr. Costello was formerly director of the Korea Program at the Atlantic Council of the US and director of the Kim Dae Jung Peace Foundation/USA. He was a political consultant and policy advisor to overseas political parties and mayors, and Washington manager for overseas NGOs. He has consulted for small technology businesses in Korea and the US. He has advised ministers and staff at the Foreign and Unification ministries in Seoul and the State Department in Washington. Beyond South Korea, Costello’s focus includes the Korean Peninsula, Northeast Asia, and the US interests in the region.

Celeste Arrington is Korea Foundation Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at GW. She specializes in comparative politics, with a regional focus on the Koreas and Japan. Her research and teaching focus on law and social movements, the media, lawyers, policy processes, historical justice, North Korean human rights, and qualitative methods. She is also interested in the international relations and security of Northeast Asia and transnational activism. She is the author of Accidental Activists: Victims and Government Accountability in South Korea and Japan (2016) and has published in Comparative Political Studies, Law & Society Review, Journal of East Asian Studies, Pacific Affairs, Asian Survey, and the Washington Post, among others. She received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and an A.B. from Princeton University. She is currently writing a book that analyzes the role of lawyers and legal activism in Japanese and Korean policies related to persons with disabilities and tobacco control.

Heung-Kyu Kim is the founder and Director of China Policy Institute and professor in the department of political science at Ajou University, South Korea. He also served as a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His current assignments include Policy Advisory Board Member for the Ministry of National Defense and the ROK Army and a member of the Foreign Ministry’s Reform Commission. He also served as Director of Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Presidential Commission on Policy Planning, Team Leader of Security and Defense in the Presidential Task Force of Future Vision 2045, a board member of the National Security Council and a board member of National Defense Reform Commission. Dr. Kim’s publications include China and the U.S.-ROK Alliance: Promoting a Trilateral Dialogue (CFR, 2017), Enemy, Homager or Equal Partner?: Evolving Korea-China Relations (2012), From a Buffer Zone to a Strategic Burden: Evolving Sino-North Korea Relations during Hu Jintao Era (2010). His book China’s Central-Local Relations and Decision-Making received an award for Excellency of the Year by the Ministry of Culture in 2008. He also received the NEAR Foundation Academic prize of the year in the area of foreign policy and security in 2014. Kim received his BA and MA in international relations from Seoul National University, South Korea, and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan.

Moderator

Yonho Kim is Associate Research Professor of Practice and Associate Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies. He specializes in North Korea’s mobile telecommunications and U.S. policy towards North Korea. Kim is the author of North Korea’s Mobile Telecommunications and Private Transportation Services in the Kim Jong-un Era (2019) and Cell Phones in North Korea: Has North Korea Entered the Telecommunications Revolution? (2014). His research findings were covered by various media outlets, including Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Yonhap News, and Libération. Prior to joining GWIKS, he extensively interacted with the Washington policy circle on the Korean peninsula as Senior Researcher of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Senior Reporter for Voice of America’s Korean Service, and Assistant Director of the Atlantic Council’s Program on Korea in Transition. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University, and an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

“Global Views on COVID-19: Responses and Perspectives in China, Taiwan, and Italy”: A Webinar Workshop

Event Description

In addition to the Herculean task of moving all your instruction online, we know educators are also fielding questions from students about COVID 19. What can we expect in the coming weeks as the COVID 19 pandemic unfolds? How might we address the broad social, economic, and political consequences of the pandemic?

The webinar series “Global Views on COVID 19” will help you answer these questions by examining the effects of COVID 19 around the world, giving educators an opportunity to learn from experiences and policies in other countries. Each session will focus on a particular region and will feature information about personal impacts, economic policies, and the intersection of COVID 19 with politics.

This session will be recorded and presentations will be made available the videoconference.

Speakers

Huaying Bao

East Asia Voices Initiative Fellow, GW

International Exchange and Cooperation Office, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China

Dr. Eve Chiu

East Asia Voices Initiative Fellow, GW

CEO, The Foundation for Excellent Journalism Award, Taiwan

Dr. Qingyun Li

East Asia Voices Initiative Fellow, GW

Associate Research Professor, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China

Dr. Giulio Pugliese

East Asia Voices Initiative Fellow, GW

Lecturer, King’s College London, United Kingdom

Topics

“Understanding Coronavirus Responses in Different Cultures and Systems: Hopeful Views in China” presented by Huaying Bao and Dr. Qingyun Li
“Resolute Island in Turbulent Times: How Taiwan is Responding to the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic” presented by Dr. Eve Chiu
“Italy’s Struggle with COVID-19: A Clarion Call” presented by Dr. Giulio Pugliese

Date & Time

Monday, March 30th, 2020
7:30 PM-8:30 PM

Technical Details

Zoom videoconferencing app
When you register at the link, you will be given a meeting ID and URL link to the video conference. Please keep a record of the URL and meeting ID to join. You may be able to use Zoom via a web browser if you do not already have the Zoom application.

Note: This event is open to the public and on the record.

[ Due to health concerns related to COVID-19, this upcoming event have been canceled. ]

We will reschedule them once we can begin confirming our schedule of events. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope that everyone stays well. Please reach out to us at gweanrc@gwu.edu if you have any further questions.

“Samsung Rising:
The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech”

Korea Policy Forum Alumnus Book Talk

About the Book

Based on years of reporting on Samsung for The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and Time, from his base in South Korea, and his countless sources inside and outside the company, Geoffrey Cain offers a penetrating look behind the curtains of the biggest company nobody in America knows. Seen for decades in tech circles as a fast follower rather than an innovation leader, Samsung today has grown to become a market leader in the United States and around the globe. They have captured one quarter of the smartphone market and have been pushing the envelope on every front.

A sweeping insider account of the Korean company’s ongoing war against the likes of Google and Apple, Samsung Rising shows how a determined and fearless Asian competitor has become a force to be reckoned with.

Author

Geoffrey Cain, ESIA BA ’08
Former Foreign Correspondent, The Economist

Discussant

Gwanhoo Lee
Professor and Chair, Department of Information Technology and Analytics, Kogod School of Business, American University

Moderator

  Yonho Kim
Associate Director, GW Institute for Korean Studies

Date & Time

Wednesday, March 25, 2020
12:00 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.

Location

Room 214, Elliott School of International Affairs, the George Washington University
1957 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052

Note: This event is open to the public and on the record.

Author

Geoffrey Cain

Geoffrey Cain, ESIA BA ’08, is a foreign correspondent and author who has covered Asia and technology for The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Time, The New Republic, and other publications. A resident of South Korea for five years and a Fulbright scholar, he studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and the George Washington University. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Discussant

Professor Lee

Professor Lee is Chair of the Department of Information Technology and Analytics, teaches digital leadership and strategy to undergraduate students and project management to graduate students. His primary research areas include digital innovation, digital transformation, digital health care, information privacy, cybersecurity, smart government, software development agility and complexity, and project management. He has consulted for the World Bank and Samsung on digital strategy. He worked closely with IT executives from large U.S. organizations including 3M, American Red Cross, AMTRAK, Cargill, CSC, Deloitte, Freddie Mac, GAO, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, IBM, Marriott, Medtronic, Northwest Airlines, Pfizer, and World Bank. His research has been published in MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, European Journal of Information Systems, Communications of the ACM, Journal of Information Technology, Information & Management, Government Information Quarterly, Telecommunications Policy, Information Technology and People, Journal of Information Technology Management, and IEEE Pervasive Computing.

Moderator

Yonho Kim

Yonho Kim is Associate Research Professor of Practice and Associate Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies. He specializes in North Korea’s mobile telecommunications and U.S. policy towards North Korea. Kim is the author of North Korea’s Mobile Telecommunications and Private Transportation Services in the Kim Jong-un Era (2019) and Cell Phones in North Korea: Has North Korea Entered the Telecommunications Revolution? (2014). His research findings were covered by various media outlets, including Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Yonhap News, and Libération. Prior to joining GWIKS, he extensively interacted with the Washington policy circle on the Korean peninsula as Senior Researcher of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Senior Reporter for Voice of America’s Korean Service, and Assistant Director of the Atlantic Council’s Program on Korea in Transition. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University, and an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

“Kim-Renaud EA Humanities Lecture Series: Civilizing the South: Colonialism and Cultural Changes in Han Times”

Event Description

Empires and their magisterial roles in history have long sparked the imaginations of scholars, artists, and writers. European legacies have impressed upon us the deep significance of Ancient Rome and its imperial influences throughout the ages and throughout the Western world. Most of us know of faraway places along the northern frontier of the Roman world, such as London, Cologne, and Paris, and we also have a sense of the diversity of the region and how different the cultures that inhabited it might have been from their imperialistic Roman neighbors to the South. But when it comes to the faraway, frontier regions of the Han empire, we draw a blank: who were the peoples of the northern and southern frontiers on the East Asian mainland, and what were their cultures like in comparison to those from the ancient Central States regions around the Yellow River regions? What did the colonial cities and outposts along the borders look like, and how did they differ from each other and the great cities, including the capital, closer to the center of the empire? Was everyday life changed significantly for peoples living in the outer regions of early empires, or did the penetration and transformation of Sinitic languages and cultures in these outer regions occur on a much larger time-scale than the Han? Prof. Brindley’s talk addresses these questions through an inquiry into the civilizing missions along the ancient southern frontier. It revisits issues concerning imperial reach and colonialism, and sheds light on what we can know about Han control and the limited extent of cultural change in this period.

Speaker

Professor Erica Fox Brindley

Professor of Asian Studies

Pennsylvania State University

Date & Time

Friday, February 28th, 2020
3:30 PM-5:30 PM

Location

Rome Hall Room 459

The George Washington University
801 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC 20052

Note: This event is open to the public and on the record.

Speaker

Professor Erica Fox Brindley

I am an intellectual and cultural historian of early China (500 BC to 200 CE) interested in the development of premodern East Asia, especially a region I (and collaborators) call SEAMZ (the Southeast Asian Maritime Zone). My first three monographs concern mostly ancient Chinese thought and intellectual history. They are titled Individualism in Early China: Human Agency and the Self in Thought and Politics (University of Hawaii Press, 2010); Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China (State University of New York Press, 2012); and Ancient China and the Yue: Perceptions and Identities on the Southern Frontier, c.400 BCE – 50 CE (Cambridge University Press, 2015). Currently, I’m working on a dedicated study of an ancient intellectual school called the Mohists, which came together as quasi-military, religious groups that trained men in technical sciences, disputation, and ethics. I’m interested in their perceived project of standardizing, organizing, and regulating knowledge (which I refer to as the “mass production of knowledge”) and how it affected practices of knowledge and science in East Asia. Another aspect of my current work involves rethinking the networked relationships that connected much of the southeastern parts of continental Eurasia (specifically, “China” south of the Yangzi River) to areas in Southeast Asia. Collaborators and I are fostering interdisciplinary discussions to better understand how large portions of this zone got incorporated over the millennia into the Chinese realm. As the co-editor with Rowan Flad (archaeology, Harvard University) on a new, 5-year publication series called “Cambridge Elements,” Ancient East Asia (published by Cambridge University Press), I hope to bring together the writing of established experts in the disciplines of history, literature, archaeology, and linguistics to provide new, multi-disciplinary, and cutting-edge research on the global history of this major part of the ancient world.

“Energy Cooperation between Korea and the U.S.: Opportunities and Challenges”

Korea Policy Forum

Event Description

Energy security has long been a key policy agenda for the Republic of Korea and the United States. Geopolitical risks related with oil and gas supply, especially the instability in the Middle East and the South China Sea, still constitute a key pillar of energy security for both ROK and the U.S. Recently, the ROK has emerged a major buyer of U.S. LNG and shale oil. However, energy partnership between the two countries should be built beyond energy transactions. It should cope with the challenges from climate change and energy transition while exploring the opportunities in new energy technologies and emerging markets at the global level. Energy security cooperation needs to be re-emphasized as a key element of the comprehensive alliance. This seminar addresses key opportunities and challenges of U.S.-ROK energy cooperation.​

Speaker

Jae-Seung Lee

Professor and Jean Monnet Chair in Division of International Studies, Korea University

Discussant

  Thomas Nicholas Russo

the George Washington University

Moderator

  Yonho Kim

Associate Director, GW Institute for Korean Studies

Date & Time

Friday, February 14, 2020
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Location

Room 505

Elliott School of International Affairs, the George Washington University

1957 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052

Dr. Jae-Seung Lee

Dr. Jae-Seung Lee is Professor and Jean Monnet Chair in Division of International Studies and Director of Nordic-Benelux Center at Korea University. He has been affiliated with Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and Stanford University as a visiting scholar. He serves as Policy Advisor to Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chairman of Asia-Europe Energy Policy Research Network (AEEPRN) and Board Member of Chey Institute for Advanced Studies (CIAS). As a scholar in international political economy, Jae-Seung Lee has been specialized in energy security, regional cooperation and Korea’s foreign policy. His current research focuses on energy geopolitics in East Asia. Professor Lee holds a B.A. in political science from Seoul National University, M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. He has contributed op-ed articles to major Korean newspapers and has commented on international affairs for BBC, CNN and Korean broadcast stations. Professor. Lee regularly speaks at Shanghai Forum, Beijing Forum and Salzburg Seminar.

Tom Russo

Tom Russo is an Energy and Environmental specialist in regulatory matters and a CISSP who specializes in physical security and resiliency of natural gas, oil and NGL pipelines and facilities. Prior to founding Russo on Russo on Energy LLC in May 2015, Mr. Russo worked for over 30 years as a Manager and Sr. Energy Industry Analyst at the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). During that time, he worked on natural gas and crude oil infrastructure and markets, NEPA environmental impact assessment and hydropower matters, especially with the International Joint Commission. Earlier in his career he worked on water resources issues in Iran and Peru. He writes an Energy and Environmental column for the Natural Gas and Electricity Journal and is an Associated Fellow at the R Street Institute

Yonho Kim

Yonho Kim is Associate Research Professor of Practice and Associate Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies. He specializes in North Korea’s mobile telecommunications and U.S. policy towards North Korea. Kim is the author of North Korea’s Mobile Telecommunications and Private Transportation Services in the Kim Jong-un Era (2019) and Cell Phones in North Korea: Has North Korea Entered the Telecommunications Revolution? (2014). His research findings were covered by various media outlets, including Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Yonhap News, and Libération. Prior to joining GWIKS, he extensively interacted with the Washington policy circle on the Korean peninsula as Senior Researcher of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Senior Reporter for Voice of America’s Korean Service, and Assistant Director of the Atlantic Council’s Program on Korea in Transition. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University, and an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

“Civic Legacies and Immigrant Incorporation in East Asian Democracies”

Event Description

How do we explain divergent patterns of immigrant incorporation in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan given the similarities between each country’s immigration and citizenship policies, their overlapping immigrant populations largely from neighboring Asian countries, and their common dilemmas of accommodating social diversity while adhering to liberal democratic principles? Based on over 150 in-depth interviews with immigrants, pro-immigrant activists, and government officials and 28 focus groups with the major foreign resident groups in each country, this book prioritizes the role played by civil society actors—including migrants themselves—in giving voice to migrant interests, mobilizing migrant actors, and shaping public debate and policy on immigration. Departing from the dominant scholarship on immigrant incorporation that focuses on culture, domestic political elites, and international norms, I argue that civil society actors drew on existing ideas, networks, and strategies previously applied to incorporate historically marginalized groups, or what I call civic legacies, to confront the challenges of immigrant incorporation. Rather than determining the paths available to later generations, civic legacies form the opportunities and constraints that demarcate the rules of the game for migrant claims making, thus framing the direction of immigrant incorporation, the level of penetration in society, and the potential for structural reform. As the first English-language book comparing three countries that represent a single model of immigrant incorporation in East Asia, Immigrant Incorporation in East Asian Democracies proposes to shed insights into the gaps between policy intent, interpretation, and outcomes.

Speaker

Erin Aeran Chung

 Associate Professor of East Asian Politics

Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University

Moderator

Celeste Arrington

Korea Foundation Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs

George Washington University

Date & Time

Friday, February 28th, 2020
12:30 PM-1:45 PM

Location

Room 505
Elliott School of International Affairs
The George Washington University
1957 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052

Note: This event is open to the public and on the record.

Speakers

Erin Aeran Chung

Erin Aeran Chung is the Charles D. Miller Associate Professor of East Asian Politics in the Department of Political Science at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. She previously served as the director of the East Asian Studies Program and the co-director of the Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship (RIC) Program. She specializes in East Asian political economy, international migration, and comparative racial politics. She has been a Mansfield Foundation U.S.-Japan Network for the Future Program Scholar, an SSRC Abe Fellow at the University of Tokyo and Korea University, an advanced research fellow at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, and a Japan Foundation fellow at Saitama University. She also served on the Executive Committee of the Migration and Citizenship section of the American Political Science Association and is currently co-editor of the Cambridge University Press Elements Social Science Series on the Politics and Society of East Asia. Her first book, Immigration and Citizenship in Japan, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2010 (with a paperback edition in 2014) and translated into Japanese and published by Akashi Shoten in 2012. Her second book, Immigrant Incorporation in East Asian Democracies, is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press. She was recently awarded a five-year grant from the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS) to support the completion of her third book project on Citizenship, Social Capital, and Racial Politics in the Korean Diaspora.

Professor Celeste Arrington

Professor Arrington specializes in comparative politics, with a regional focus on the Koreas and Japan. Her research interests include law and social change, governance, civil society, social movements, policy-making processes, the media and politics, and qualitative methods. She is also interested in the international relations and security of Northeast Asia and transnational activism.

Professor Arrington earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. from Princeton University. She was an advanced research fellow in the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University in 2010-2011. During the 2011-2012 year, she was a member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. She is also a member of the Mike and Maureen Mansfield Foundation’s U.S.-Japan Network for the Future and its U.S.-Korea Scholar-Policymaker Nexus. In 2017-2018, she was a fellow at the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University.

“Covering the Other Half Billion: China’s Rural Sector”

Event Description

For much of post-1949 history, the rural sector has been the poor relation of China’s society and economy. Today, however, the rural sector lies at the heart of Xi Jinping’s economic agenda for China’s comprehensive development. The party’s and government’s ability to fulfil major economic goals—those relating to employment, food security and rebalancing of the economic system—depend critically on the success of its rural policies. So too does its ability to realize important social and other goals—including poverty reduction, the creation of a more inclusive society, and environmental sustainability. An economically and socially revitalised Chinese countryside will also impact the political stability which China’s leaders see as the bedrock of their continuing rule. This lecture will explore all of these dimensions.

​

Speakers

Professor Robert Ash

Professor of Economics with reference to China and Taiwan

School of Oriental & African Studies

University of London

Moderator

Professor David Shambaugh

Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science & International Affairs

Director, China Policy Program

The George Washington University

Date & Time

Thursday, February 27th, 2020
4:30 PM-6:00 PM

Location

Lindner Family Commons, Room 602
Elliott School of International Affairs
The George Washington University
1957 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052

Note: This event is open to the public and on the record.

Speakers

Professor Robert Ash

Professor Robert Ash is a Professorial Fellow in the China Institute at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he teaches in the School of Financial and Management Studies as Professor of Economics with reference to China and Taiwan. From 1986 to 1995 he was Head of the Contemporary China Institute at SOAS, and from 1997-2001 was Director of the EU-China Academic Network (ECAN). From 1999 to 2013 he was also Director of the SOAS Taiwan Studies Programme.

Professor Ash has held visiting research and teaching positions at universities in Australia, Hong Kong, France and Italy. He has been researching China for more than 40 years and has published on development issues relating to China, as well as on Taiwan and Hong Kong. His most recent major publication (2017) is a study of China’s agricultural development between 1840 and the present day, Agricultural Development in the World Periphery: A Global Economic History Approach. He has also undertaken a wide range of consultancy work in both private and public sectors—including for the British Government, the European Commission, European Parliament and the UN International Labour Organisation.

“Korean Politics 2020 – Korean Security Issues and Challenges”

Korea Policy Forum

Event Description

Domestic Politics is a key factor in shaping security and foreign policy of states. South Korea is not an exception. In the South Korean case, the dynamic domestic political geography plays a significant role in Seoul’s strategies with North Korea and the U.S-ROK Alliance. With the upcoming general elections in April, the political landscape in South Korea will be shifting in the coming months, leading to a potential repositioning of South Korea’s foreign and security policy. Dr. Young-jun Kim and Dr. Sang-hyun Lee, current and former policy advisors for the ROK government respectively, including the President’s Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Defense, will discuss the prospects of a new domestic political geography in South Korea and its potential impact on Seoul’s foreign and security policy.

Speakers

Young-jun Kim
Professor, Korea National Defense University

Sang-hyun Lee
Senior Research Fellow, The Sejong Institute

Discussant

Dr. John Merrill
Former Chief of the Northeast Asia Division, State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research

Moderator

Jisoo M. Kim
Director, GW Institute for Korean Studies

Date & Time

Wednesday, January 29th, 2020
10:00 AM-12:00 PM

Location

Room 505
Elliott School of International Affairs
The George Washington University
1957 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052

Note: This event is open to the public and on the record.

Speakers

Dr. Young-jun Kim

Dr. Young-jun Kim is a Professor of the National Security College at the Korea National Defense University (KNDU). He is now a member of National Security Advisory Board for the Republic of Korea President’s Office (the Blue House) and a member of advisory board for the Department of Unification. His recent publications include Origins of the North Korean Garrison State: People’s Army and the Korean War at Routledge (2017). He is a member of the ROK-U.S.Combined Forces Commander’s Strategic Shaping Board (CSSB) and an International Senior Research Fellow at the U.S. Army’s Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) at Fort Leavenworth. He is a policy advisor on North Korean issues for the National Security Office of the ROK President’s Office, the National Assembly, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of National Defense (MND), National Intelligence Service, the Joint Chief of Staff and the ROK-U.S.Combined Forces Command. He is a managing editor of the new journal “The Korean Journal of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Energy” sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General-Director for the Korea Nuclear Policy Society and Korea Defense Policy Association. As Korean security expert, he has appeared on the FOX TV News, CBS TV News, BBC TV News, Wall Street Journal, the National Interest, Kyodo News and other Korean and international media.

Dr. Sang-hyun Lee

Dr. Sang-hyun Lee is a Senior Research Fellow at the Sejong Institute. Dr. Lee also serves as President of the Korea Nuclear Policy Society (KNPS). He served as Director-General for Policy Planning of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) from May 2011 to April 2013 and policy advisor for Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of National Unification, and Ministry of National Defense.Dr. Lee was a research fellow at the Korean Institute for International Studies (1987-88), and the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis (1988-90). He received his B.A. and M.A. from Seoul National University and Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1999.

Discussant

Dr. John Merrill

Dr. John Merrill is non-resident visiting scholar at GWIKS. Dr. Merrill is the former chief of the Northeast Asia Division in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He has taught at the Foreign Service Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Georgetown University, the George Washington University, and Lafayette College. For many years, he chaired seminars on North Korean foreign policy for mid-career intelligence community analysts/managers. Merrill is the author of Korea: The Peninsular Origins of the War and The Cheju-do Rebellion (in Japanese). Merrill has a Ph.D. from the University of Delaware, an M.A. from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Boston University.

Moderator

Jisoo M. Kim

Jisoo M. Kim is Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures and Director of the Institute for Korean Studies at GW. She received her Ph.D. in Korean History from Columbia University. She is a specialist in gender and legal history of early modern Korea. Her broader research interests include gender and sexuality, crime and justice, forensic medicine, literary representations of the law, history of emotions, vernacular, and gender writing. She is the author of The Emotions of Justice: Gender, Status, and Legal Performance in Chosŏn Korea (University of Washington Press, 2015), which was awarded the 2017 James Palais Prize of the Association for Asian Studies. She is also the co-editor of The Great East Asian War and the Birth of the Korean Nation by JaHyun Kim Haboush (Columbia University Press, 2016). She is currently working on two book projects titled Suspicious Deaths: Forensic Medicine, Dead Bodies, and Criminal Justice in Chosŏn Korea and Sexual Desire and Gendered Subjects: Decriminalization of Adultery Law in Korean History.