John Hamre President and CEO of CSIS and the Langone Chair in American Leadership.
Before joining CSIS, he served as the 26th U.S. deputy secretary of defense. Prior to holding that post, he was the under secretary of defense (comptroller) from 1993 to 1997. As comptroller, Dr. Hamre was the principal assistant to the secretary of defense for the preparation, presentation, and execution of the defense budget and management improvement programs. In 2007, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appointed Dr. Hamre to serve as chairman of the Defense Policy Board, and he served in that capacity for four secretaries of defense. Before joining the Department of Defense, Dr. Hamre worked for 10 years as a professional staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, responsible for oversight of procurement, research and development programs, and defense budget issues. He also served as Deputy Assistant Director for National Security and International Affairs at the Congressional Budget Office (1978-1984). Dr. Hamre received his Ph.D., with distinction, from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and his B.A., with high distinction, from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The following year he studied as a Rockefeller fellow at the Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Song Guido, President, The Korea Foundation
Song Guido began his academic and public service career as a professor in the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Jeonbuk National University (1987–2017). During this period, he contributed extensively to Korean national policy deliberation, serving as a member of the ROK Presidential Commission on Policy Planning (2002–2004), and subsequently as a member of the ROK Presidential Committee on Balanced National Development (2004–2006). In 2006, he served as the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Colombia, where he advanced bilateral cooperation across political, economic, and cultural fields. His academic leadership continued alongside his diplomatic engagement, including his service as vice president of the Korean Association of International Studies (2011–2012) and as president of the Korean Association of Latin American Studies (2012-2014). Between 2012–2017, Song also served as a policy advisor to the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs, providing strategic insights on Korea’s foreign policy direction. He later served as chair of the Budget Review Committee for Local Subsidies under the Jeollabuk-do Provincial Government (2015–2019), overseeing budget assessment and fiscal governance related to local subsidy programs. In November 2025, he assumed his current position as president of the Korea Foundation, where he continues to promote international exchange and deepen Korea’s global partnerships. Song earned a bachelor of arts in Spanish from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in 1977, and subsequently completed both his master’s and doctoral degrees in political science at the Complutense
Cho Hyun, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea
Cho Hyun serves as the 42nd Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, appointed in July 2025 under President Lee Jae-myung. With over four decades of distinguished diplomatic service, Minister Cho previously served as Korea's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (2019-2022), 1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs (2018-2019), and 2nd Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs (2017). His ambassadorial postings include India (2015-2017) and Austria, where he also served as Permanent Representative to the IAEA (2011-2014). He has held key positions including Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs, where he served as lead negotiator for the ROK-US civil nuclear cooperative agreement (2010), and Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in New York (2006). His international assignments span Brussels, Bangui, Dakar, Washington D.C., and Paris. He holds a Ph.D. in International Politics from the University of Toulouse, an M.A. in International Relations from Columbia University, and a B.A. from Yonsei University.
Jonathan Fritz, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian & Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Jonathan Fritz is the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian & Pacific Affairs. Previously, he served as the Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy & the Environment and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian & Pacific Affairs responsible for China, Mongolia, and Taiwan. Before that, he was the Director for Bilateral & Regional Affairs in the State Department’s Office of International Communications & Information Policy. Prior to that he was posted at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, where he served alternately as Minister-Counselor for Economic Affairs, Chief of Staff, acting Deputy Chief of Mission, and chargé d’ affaires. From 2010-2014 Jonathan headed the economic sections of our embassies in Canberra and Kabul. Before that, he worked on trade, investment, and IPR issues at our posts in Beijing, Mexico City, and Hong Kong. Jonathan also served in Washington on the staff of the Deputy Secretary of State, as a trade negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and as a desk officer in the State Department’s Office of Chinese & Mongolian Affairs. Jonathan began his Foreign Service career with consular tours in China and Ecuador. He spent two years at the U.S. Air Force Academy before transferring to Stanford University, where he graduated with a B.A. and an M.A. in East Asian studies.
Stephen Biegun, Former Deputy Secretary of State; Weiser International Policymaker in Residence, Weiser Diplomacy Center, University of Michigan
Stephen Biegun is the Weiser International Policymaker in Residence with the Weiser Diplomacy Center at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. He has more than three decades of international affairs experience in government and the private sector, including high-level government service with the Department of State, the White House, and the United States Congress. From 2019 to 2021, he was the Deputy Secretary of State. Prior to that, he was the U.S. Special Representative for North Korea, directing all U.S. policy on North Korea, leading negotiations, and spearheading U.S. diplomatic efforts on behalf of the Secretary of State. Biegun has three decades of experience in the Executive and Legislative Branches in government and in the private sector. As national security advisor to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, he provided analysis and strategic planning for the U.S. Senate’s consideration of foreign policy, defense and intelligence matters, and international trade agreements. Prior to that, Biegun worked in the White House from 2001-2003 as a deputy to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Executive Secretary of the National Security Council. Before joining the White House staff, Biegun served for fourteen years as a foreign policy advisor to members of both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, including as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (1999-2000) and as a senior staff member of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs. From 1992 to 1994, he served in Moscow, Russia as the Resident Director in the Russian Federation for the International Republican Institute, a democracy-building organization established under the National Endowment for Democracy. Prior to his most recent government service, Biegun was vice president of International Governmental Relations for Ford Motor Company, where—as a third generation Ford employee—he oversaw all aspects of Ford’s international governmental interactions. He graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian language and political science.
Robert Gallucci, Distinguished University Professor, Georgetown University
Robert Gallucci is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, where he previously served as Dean for 13 years. He served as President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation from 2009 and completed 21 years of government service with the U.S. Department of State, serving as Ambassador at Large since 1994 and as Special Envoy for the proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction from 1998 to 2001. His distinguished career includes serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, Deputy Executive Chairman of the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) overseeing the disarmament of Iraq, and Deputy Director General of the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai. Gallucci is co-author of Going Critical: The First North Korean Nuclear Crisis, which received the 2005 Douglas Dillon Award from the American Academy of Diplomacy. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. in Politics from Brandeis University and his B.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Cho Byung Jae, Former Chancellor, Korea National Diplomatic Academy
Cho Byung Jae worked in the field of diplomacy for 37 years as a career diplomat. He left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after serving as the Chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy and is now a Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies(IFES) at Kyungnam University. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he held key positions such as Director-General for North American Affairs, Chief Negotiator for the ROK-U.S. Defense Cost-Sharing Agreement, and Spokesperson. Overseas, he served as the Korean Ambassador to Myanmar and Malaysia. After leaving the Ministry, he contributed to fostering exchanges and cooperation among political organizations in the Asian region as Secretary-General of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), a network of political parties across Asia. He earned his bachelor's degree in international politics from Seoul National University and his master's degree from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. Later, in 2019, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of North Korea Studies in Seoul with a dissertation on “Emergence of North Korea-US-China Strategic Triangle: Change in North Korea’s Policies toward China and the United States between 1989-1994”. In May of last year, he published a book titled The Return of Donald J. Trump.
Jun Bong-geun, Professor Emeritus, Korea National Diplomatic Academy
Jun Bong-geun is Professor Emeritus at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA) since 2023, after researching and educating for 18 years there. He is also currently President of the Korea Nuclear Policy Society. Professor Jun held several governmental and non-governmental positions: Policy Advisor to the Minister of Unification, Secretary for international security affairs at the Presidential Office, and professional staffer at KEDO New York headquarters. He was also a visiting fellow at Keio University, the Asia Foundation Center for U.S-Korea Policy, and Geneva Center for Security Studies. His research areas cover the North Korean nuclear issue, inter-Korean relations, Northeast Asian politics, nuclear policy, nuclear energy, and strategic studies. Jun is the author of numerous books, including The Tragedy of International Politics of the Korean Peninsula (2023), The Thirty Year’s Nuclear Crisis on the Korean Peninsula (2023), and The Politics of Denuclearization (2020).
Sydney Seiler, Senior Adviser (Non-resident), Korea Chair
Sydney Seiler is senior adviser (non-resident) at the CSIS Korea Chair. He was the national intelligence officer for North Korea at the National Intelligence Council from 2020 to 2023 and is one of the nation’s top experts on North Korea. Previously, he was the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) senior analyst and senior defense intelligence expert for North Korea from 2016 to 2020, serving as the principal adviser and senior expert on Korean Peninsula security issues to the USFK commander and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Enterprise. Seiler also served as the U.S. special envoy for Six Party Talks (2014–2015), where he coordinated U.S. diplomacy and policy on the DPRK and led negotiations with North Korea. Prior to that, Seiler served as the director for Korea on the National Security Council (2011–2014). A member of the Senior National Intelligence Service, Seiler has over 40 years of experience focusing on Korean Peninsula affairs in a range of executive management, intelligence, and policy positions within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Directorate of Analysis, the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, the CIA’s Open Source Center, and the National Security Agency. He has three decades of experience watching North Korea and 12 years of serving in South Korea. He received his MA degree in Korean studies from Yonsei University and is a graduate of the Korean language programs of the Defense Language Institute and Yonsei University.
Kurt Campbell, Former Deputy Secretary of State; Chairman and Co-Founder, The Asia Group
Kurt Campbell is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Asia Group. Prior to re-joining TAG, Kurt most recently served as the 22nd Deputy Secretary of The United States Department of State, where he played a key role in strengthening America’s diplomatic standing and in modernizing the Department to meet enduring global challenges. Before assuming his role at the State Department, Kurt served as the inaugural Indo-Pacific Coordinator at the National Security Council and Deputy Assistant to the President at the White House from 2021 to 2024. From 2009 to 2013, Campbell served as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Earlier, he was the CEO and Co-Founder of the Center for a New American Security and concurrently served as the Director of the Aspen Strategy Group and Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Washington Quarterly. Among the other positions he has held during his distinguished career, Campbell served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Affairs, White House Fellow at the Treasury Department, and as Director of the Democracy Office at the National Security Council during the Clinton Administration. Campbell was an Associate Professor of Public Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and served in the U.S. Navy Reserves. He is the author or editor of ten books including The Pivot: The Future of American Statecraft in Asia, Difficult Transitions: Why Presidents Fail in Foreign Policy at the Outset of Power, and Hard Power: The New Politics of National Security. He received his BA from the University of California, San Diego and his Doctorate in international relations from Brasenose College at Oxford University where he was a Distinguished Marshall Scholar. Campbell is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award – the nation’s highest diplomatic honor.
Kelly Ann Shaw, Senior Adviser (Non-resident), Project on Prosperity and Development
Kelly Ann Shaw is a Senior Adviser (Non-resident) with the Project on Prosperity and Development at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. She previously served in the Trump administration as Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs and as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council. In those roles, she acted as the U.S. “sherpa” for the G7, G20, and APEC, and was deeply involved in major trade negotiations and economic agreements, including the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement and the U.S.–China Phase One deal. Before joining the administration, Shaw was Republican Trade Counsel for the House Committee on Ways and Means, where she shaped legislative and policy priorities. Earlier, at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, she worked as Assistant General Counsel in Geneva and Washington, representing the United States in more than 40 WTO disputes and advising on key negotiations, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Shaw is now a partner in Akin’s lobbying and public policy practice and previously worked as a partner at Hogan Lovells. She also teaches U.S. trade policy as a lecturer in law at Columbia Law School. She holds a BA, cum laude, from the University of Washington, an MSc with honors from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a JD with honors from Columbia Law School.
Rob Porter, Chief Global Affairs Officer, Coupang; Former White House Staff Secretary
Rob Porter served as White House Staff Secretary from 2017 to 2018 and now serves as Chief Global Affairs Officer at Coupang, a Fortune 150 technology company headquartered in Seattle. In the early Trump administration, Porter oversaw policy development on international trade, coordinated weekly cabinet-level meetings, and contributed to tariff recommendations for the President. He was also noted for shaping the President’s first State of the Union address in 2018. Porter previously served as Assistant to the President for Policy Coordination—effectively the deputy chief of staff for policy—managing the administration’s policy processes. His earlier career included roles as Chief Counsel to Senator Mike Lee on the Senate Judiciary Committee, General Counsel to Senator Rob Portman, and Chief of Staff to Senator Orrin Hatch. Coupang appointed him as an advisor for external affairs in 2023, focusing on global investment, cross-border trade, and U.S. government relations, before elevating him to Chief Global Affairs Officer in 2025. Porter graduated summa cum laude with a BA in government from Harvard University, received the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for academic excellence, studied political theory at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and earned his JD from Harvard Law School in 2008.
Kim Heungchong, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Asan Institute for Policy Studies; Former President, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy
Kim Heungchong is currently an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. He serves as a member of the Trade Agreement Review Committee at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Economic and Trade Subcommittee of the Korea–Russia Dialogue, and the International Advisory Board of the Thailand Development Research Institute. He is also a member of both the Foreign Affairs, Security and Unification Advisory Council and the National Economic Advisory Council of the Democratic Party of Korea. From June 2020 to July 2023, he served as President of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP). He also served as President of the Korea Pacific Economic Cooperation Committee (KOPEC, 2020–2023), Advisor to the Presidential Committee on National Policy Planning (Economy II Division, 2025), Chair of the Economic and Trade Subcommittee of the Korea–China Future Cooperation Committee (2021–2022), and President of the Korea APEC Studies Association (2021–2024), the Korean Association of EU Studies (2021), and the Asia-Pacific Association of EU Studies (2021–2022). In June 2025, he visited Australia under the Special Visitor Programme (SVP) hosted by the Australian Government. He has served as Policy Advisor to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (2022–2024) and as FTA Negotiation Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2007–2009). Kim has also been a Professor by Special Appointment at Korea University, a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, a Visiting Senior Fellow at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri) and at Marmara University in Türkiye, and an Honorary High Table Member at the University of Oxford. He read economics at Seoul National University and the University of Oxford. He has (co-)authored over 300 papers and articles and contributes regularly to major daily newspapers and weekly journals in Korea.
Kim Seungho, Professor, Hallym University; Former Deputy Trade Minister for Legal and Multilateral Affairs
Kim Seungho is a faculty member at the Graduate School of Global Cooperation at Hallym University in South Korea and a retired career diplomat with nearly four decades of government service. Since joining the foreign service in 1986, he has held a wide range of senior roles, including Director of the European Trade Division, Director-General for Bilateral Economic Diplomacy, and Deputy Trade Minister for Legal and Multilateral Affairs. His overseas assignments were equally extensive. He served as Counselor and Minister at the Korean Permanent Mission to the OECD, the Embassy of Korea in Iran, the Korean Mission to the WTO, and the Korean Mission to the European Union. He later represented South Korea as Ambassador to Iran and as Consul General in Shanghai. Kim devoted most of his diplomatic career to economic and trade policy. He played a central role in several major international trade disputes involving South Korea, such as the Korea–EU shipbuilding case, the Korea–Japan fisheries dispute, and various export control disputes. Beyond dispute settlement, he managed South Korea’s bilateral economic and trade relationships with key partners including the United States, China, Japan, and the European Union. His multilateral experience is equally substantial, shaped by his work at the WTO, the OECD, and related leadership positions. He is also an accomplished scholar. His publications include Case Commentary on WTO Trade Disputes (2007), Commentary on ICSID Arbitral Awards (2018), and Comprehensive Commentary on International Law Cases (2021), along with numerous articles on international economics and trade in domestic and international journals.
Mark Lippert, Senior Adviser (Non-resident), Korea Chair
Mark Lippert is senior adviser (non-resident) at the CSIS Korea Chair. He had a distinguished career in the United States government that spanned approximately two decades and included series of senior-level positions across multiple agencies. From 2014-2017, he served as the United States ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Republic of Korea, based in Seoul. He previously held positions in the Department of Defense, including as chief of staff to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (2013-2014) and as assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs (2012-2013), the top official in the Pentagon for all Asia issues. Lippert also worked in the White House as chief of staff to the National Security Council in 2009. Lippert served in the uniformed military. An intelligence officer in the United States Navy, he mobilized to active duty from 2009 to 2011 for service with Naval Special Warfare (SEALs) Development Group that included deployments to Afghanistan and other regions. From 2007 to 2008, he deployed as an intelligence officer with Seal Team One to Anbar Province, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Earlier in his career, Lippert served as a staff member in the United States Senate, where he worked on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for then-Senator Obama; the Senate Appropriations Committee State-Foreign Operations Subcommittee for Senator Leahy, and for other members of the Senate. His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal for his service in Iraq, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, and the Basic Parachutist Badge. He is also the recipient of the Department of Defense’s Distinguished Public Service Award and the Department of the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a BA in political science and holds an MA in international policy studies from the same institution. He speaks Korean and also studied Mandarin Chinese at Beijing University.
Thomas Wright, Senior Fellow, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy and Technology, Brookings Institution; Former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Strategic Planning, National Security Council
Thomas Wright is a senior fellow with the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Brookings Institution. Tom most recently served as special assistant to the president and senior director for strategic planning at the National Security Council in the Biden administration. At the White House, Tom worked on a wide range of projects and issues, including the 2022 U.S. National Security Strategy, the Russia-Ukraine war and European security, U.S.-China relations, the global south, foreign economic policy, and countering the growing alignment between U.S. adversaries and competitors (China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea). He is the author of “All Measures Short of War: The Contest For the 21st Century and the Future of American Power” (Yale University Press, 2017), which argued that the post-Cold War period of great power convergence was being replaced by an era of intense strategic competition in an interdependent world. He is the co-author, with Colin Kahl, of “Aftershocks: Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International Order” (St Martin’s Press, 2021). He has also written extensively for The Atlantic as a contributing writer and for many other publications. These pieces included a Politico Magazine essay in January 2016 that was the first to identify Donald Trump’s “America First” worldview. He has a PhD from Georgetown University, a Master of Philosophy from Cambridge University, and a bachelor’s and master’s from University College Dublin. He has also held a pre-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University.
Victor Cha, President, Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department and Korea Chair
Victor Cha is president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is also the distinguished university professor and professor of government at Georgetown University. He was appointed in 2021 by the Biden administration to serve on the Defense Policy Board in an advisory role to the secretary of defense. From 2004 to 2007, he served on the National Security Council (NSC) and was responsible for Japan, Korea, Australia/New Zealand, and Pacific Island nations. Dr. Cha was U.S. deputy head of delegation at the Six Party Talks and received two outstanding service commendations during his tenure at the NSC. He is the author of nine books, including the award-winning Alignment Despite Antagonism: The United States–Korea–Japan Security Triangle (Stanford University Press, 1999), which won the 2000 Ohira Book Prize, and The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future (Ecco, 2012), selected by Foreign Affairs as a “Best Book on the Asia-Pacific for 2012.” His other books are Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies (Columbia University Press, 2003); Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sport in Asia (Columbia University Press, 2009); Powerplay: Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia (Princeton University Press, 2018); Korea: A New History of South and North (Yale University Press, 2023); The Black Box: Demystifying the Study of Korean Unification and North Korea (Columbia University Press, 2024); North Korea’s Sea-Based WMD Capability (Bloomsbury, 2025); and China’s Weaponization of Trade: Resistance through Collective Resilience (Columbia University Press, 2026). Dr. Cha is a two-time Fulbright scholar, former Olin fellow at Harvard, and former Hoover, CISAC, and Koret fellow at Stanford. He currently serves on 10 editorial boards of academic journals and is coeditor of the Contemporary Asia book series at Columbia University Press. He serves on the board of the National Endowment for Democracy and is a senior fellow at the George W. Bush Institute. He is also a foreign affairs contributor for MSNBC and NBC News. Dr. Cha received his PhD, MIA and BA degree from Columbia University and a BA Honors.
Kim Youngjun, Dean of Academic Affairs of National Security College, Korea National Defense University
Youngjun Kim is Dean of Academic Affairs of National Security College at the Korea National Defense University. He has been a member of President's National Security Advisory Board, Ministry of National Defense Korea Arms Control and Verification Agency, Department of Unification, International Senior Research Fellow of Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Visiting Professor of the George Washington University, Non Resident Fellow at National Bureau of Asian Research, Advisory Board for ROK US Combined Forces Commanders' Strategic Shaping Board, Advisory Board for Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, Central Committee of Presidential Peaceful Unification Advisory Board and Columnist of Joongang Daily Newspaper and Segye Daily Newspaper. He published a book titled Origins of the North Korean Garrison State: People's Army and the Korean War" at Routledge.
Lee Seong-Hyon, Senior Fellow, George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.–China Relations
Lee Seong-Hyon is a Senior Fellow at the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.–China Relations and an Associate in Research at Harvard University’s Asia Center. His work examines Chinese foreign policy, U.S.–China relations, and East Asian geopolitics, with a particular focus on how great-power competition shapes the Korean Peninsula. His analysis is grounded in 11 years of first-hand experience living in Beijing. He received his Ph.D. from Tsinghua University—where he was the sole international student in his cohort—and previously completed his undergraduate degree at Grinnell College, earned his master’s at Harvard University, and served as a Pantech Fellow at Stanford University. His scholarship is distinguished by its integration of academic rigor and policy relevance. As the former China Director at a leading Seoul think tank, he has briefed senior decision-makers ranging from South Korean presidential candidates and ranking lawmakers to U.S. government specialists and Congressional audiences. He has delivered invited lectures at the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Harvard Kennedy School, and Stanford University, and has appeared on C-SPAN. He is the author of two books on great-power rivalry— including The New Cold War (2025)—and is the Korean translator of the 2024 Harvard University Press biography of Zhou Enlai.
Henrietta Levin, Senior Fellow, Freeman Chair in China Studies
Henrietta Levin is a senior fellow with the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. She previously held senior roles at the U.S. Department of State and the White House, spearheading U.S. strategy and diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific, with particular focus on China and its global impact, Southeast Asia, and the region’s multilateral architecture. Most recently, Henrietta served as deputy China coordinator for global affairs at the Department of State, director for China at the White House National Security Council, and director for Southeast Asia, also at the National Security Council. Earlier, she held several positions across the Department of State, including at U.S. Embassy Beijing, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. She began her government career at the Pentagon, where she served as a spokesperson and presidential management fellow in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Henrietta is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and holds several Department of State Superior Honor Awards. She received a bachelor's degree in international relations and a master of public diplomacy degree from the University of Southern California.