Kathryn Paik Joins CSIS Australia Chair as Senior Fellow

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 30, 2023 – The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) today announced that Kathryn Paik has joined CSIS as senior fellow with the Australia Chair.

Paik brings more than two decades of experience formulating and driving U.S. policy in the Indo-Pacific, bolstering the CSIS Australia Chair’s renowned work on U.S.-Australia relations and on the region more broadly. She will play a key role in expanding and deepening CSIS’s impact on U.S. national security and strategy in this critical region.

"There is bipartisan sentiment that the Indo-Pacific region must be America's priority theatre. Kathryn has a wealth of knowledge and experience—as a Marine aviator operating in the Indo-Pacific, a foreign area specialist who has lived and worked in China and Indonesia, and, most recently, as the National Security Council's Director for the Pacific and Southeast Asia. At a moment when tensions are growing and partnerships rapidly evolving, there are few people who know the Indo-Pacific region as well as Kathryn,” said Charles Edel, who holds the CSIS Australia Chair. “I'm thrilled to welcome Kathryn to CSIS.”

Paik recently finished a 23-year career in the United States Marine Corps, where she last served as Director for the Pacific and Southeast Asia at the National Security Council (NSC). In her role at the NSC, she developed and led multiple first-ever efforts for the White House related to the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia, including spearheading the development of the first U.S. government strategic document on the Pacific: the Pacific Partnership Strategy.

Prior to her time at the NSC, Paik served as a helicopter pilot and a Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia Foreign Area Officer for the Marine Corps. She has over 1900 flight hours and has deployed to Iraq, the Persian Gulf, and throughout the Indo-Pacific. She was also the Marine Attaché to Indonesia from 2017 to 2020.

The CSIS Australia Chair sharpens the focus on U.S.-Australia alliance relations and develops innovative policy solutions for the rapidly expanding regional and global challenges that call for greater coordination and action by Canberra and Washington. To learn more about CSIS’s Australia Chair, visit here.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to advancing practical ideas to address the world’s greatest challenges.