Sue Mi Terry Joins CSIS as Senior Fellow for Korea Chair

WASHINGTON, November 6, 2017: The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is delighted to announce that Sue Mi Terry—a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst, policymaker, and academic researcher widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on North Korea—has been appointed senior fellow for the Korea Chair.

“Sue is an all-star analyst who is widely respected in the field of Korea studies," said John Hamre, CSIS president and CEO. "A fluent speaker of Korean with unrivaled understanding of the peninsula, Sue will be an invaluable addition to our Asia team and to the entire CSIS community.”

Dr. Terry joins CSIS after a long and accomplished career in intelligence, policymaking, and academia following Korean issues.

Dr. Terry served as a Senior Analyst on Korean issues at the CIA from 2001 to 2008, where she produced hundreds of intelligence assessments-including a record number of contributions to the President’s Daily Brief, the Intelligence Community’s most prestigious product. She received numerous awards for her leadership and outstanding mission support, including the CIA Foreign Language award in 2008.

From 2008 to 2009, she served as director for Korea, Japan, and Oceanic affairs at the National Security Council under both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. From 2009 to 2010, she was the deputy national intelligence officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council.

Victor Cha, CSIS senior adviser and Korea Chair, commented, “Sue’s experience in policy at the National Security Council and in analysis at the CIA puts her at the top of the field. It’s great to have her join our team.”

Since leaving the government, Dr. Terry has served as the national intelligence fellow in the David Rockefeller Studies Program at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York (2010–2011), as senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute (2011–2015), and as senior adviser for Korea at BowerGroupAsia (2015–2017).

Mike Green, CSIS senior vice president for Asia and Japan Chair, stated, “I have known Sue for years and have the utmost respect for her grasp not only of Korean and Asian issues but also of how they fit into the broader picture of U.S. foreign policy.”

Dr. Terry holds a Ph.D. (2001) and an M.A. (1998) in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and a B.A. in political science from New York University (1993). She was born in Seoul and raised in Hawaii and Northern Virginia.

For more information, please contact the Office of the Korea Chair via e-mail at KoreaChair@csis.org