Meet Our 2024 Next-Generation Korean Peninsula Specialists
The National Committee on American Foreign Policy is pleased to showcase our third cohort of Next-Generation Korean Peninsula Specialists! This group of 10 outstanding scholars spent 2024 networking with their peers, meeting with mentors, participating in professional development workshops, and writing policy papers on key issues related to Korean Peninsula security. Each participant produced a policy paper and was featured in a podcast episode published in early 2025.
To conclude the program, the emerging leaders participated in a public virtual program, where they shared their insights and policy recommendations for the U.S. and South Korean governments on how to address challenges facing the Korean Peninsula.
Chelsie Alexandre
Chelsie Alexandre is the Policy Program Officer at The Korea Society. She works with the Director of Policy to develop and implement events that address issues shaping the dynamics of U.S.-ROK relations, the Korean peninsula, and Northeast Asia. Before joining The Korea Society, Chelsie received a Fulbright Research award to conduct research in South Korea on the role of middle power countries in the Korean peace process with Korea University’s Peace and Democracy Institute. During her time in Seoul, she also briefly reported on domestic Korean affairs for The Diplomat.
Prior to her current role, Chelsie was a Partnerships Coordinator at the New York City-based nonprofit, The Concordia Summit, and she worked as a Legal Analyst at the global law firm Kobre & Kim. Chelsie also had previous experience as a research Intern at The Korea Society. She graduated with a B.A. in Politics from Princeton University, with minors in East Asian Studies and Diplomacy.
Attawat Assavanadda
Attawat Assavanadda is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong and Young Leader at Pacific Forum (a Honolulu-based think tank). I research International Relations and Security of East Asia, with particular interests in the roles of soft power and public diplomacy in regional peace and security. My ongoing Ph.D. project scrutinizes Thai people’s reception of China’s public diplomacy using a mixture of field research, survey experiments, and in-depth interview methods. Prior to doctoral training, I obtained a Master of Arts in International Relations (International Security specialization) from Waseda University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Chulalongkorn University. Professionally, I previously worked as a political analyst at Government House of Thailand, a research assistant at Chulalongkorn University’s Institute of Asian Studies and Thammasat University’s German-Southeast Asian Centre of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance (CPG), and a research intern at the University of New South Wales.
Eric Danielsson
Eric Danielsson is a M.A. candidate in Defense Systems Science and assistant at the Swedish Defence University. He has previously been a Research Fellow at the Democracy and New Policy Center researching Mongolian diplomatic, military, and economic policies as well as published a book chapter on Swedish-Mongolian relations. He has previously worked on Korean Peninsula security issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Korea Chair, Institute for Security and Development Policy Korea Centre and conducted armament and disarmament research at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Mr. Danielsson holds a Masters in Asian Studies concentrating in Politics and Security from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Asian Languages and Cultures with a focus Korea from Stockholm University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science focusing on Crisis Management and Security from the Swedish Defence University. He has also attended Kim Il Sung University as the first Swedish exchange student and traveled to the DPRK on several occasions.
He has published on book chapters and articles on the Perception of Genghis Khan in DPRK Historiography, Swedish-Mongolian foreign relations, the North Korean Cruise Missile Program, DPRK conceptualization of security and Food in Pyongyang. His main research interests are disaster risk reduction in the DPRK, DPRK military capability development, air and missile defense, CCP espionage, DPRK-Mongolian bilateral relations, Swedish-Mongolian bilateral relations and the security environment on the Korean Peninsula.
Ian Fleming Zhou
Ian Fleming Zhou is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. His doctoral thesis delves into the interplay between economic sanctions and nuclear proliferation, with a specific focus on counter-proliferation sanctions and their impact on North Korea’s nuclear program. He is an Arms Control Negotiation Academy (ACONA) research fellow (2023-2024 cohort). His commitment to advancing nuclear arms control and disarmament is further showcased by various publications of policy papers, peer reviewed journal articles and opinion pieces and active participation in international arms control forums. Mr. Zhou was a Peaceful Uses Youth Working Group Chair under British American Security Information Center (BASIC)’s Emerging Voices Network during the 10th NPT Review Conference in 2022. He is a former Executive Board Member for BASIC’s Emerging Voices Network. Formerly, he was CTBTO research fellow (2022 cohort). His areas of expertise are arms control, nuclear diplomacy, nonproliferation and disarmament.
Cathy Kang
Cathy Kang is a Ph.D. candidate in International Relations at Sofia University, specializing in international negotiations and security dynamics with a focus on the Korean Peninsula. Raised in Europe and having studied in Korea, Cathy Kang brings a unique multicultural perspective to her studies. Her dissertation examines South Korea’s soft power initiatives and their impact on North-South Korea peace negotiations, highlighting her interest in diplomacy and peacebuilding.
Cathy Kang is an advisory member at the Peaceful Unification Advisory Committee where she is contributing to projects on peace and international cooperation through cultural diplomacy. Her work has been recognized at several international conferences, where he has presented her findings on multilateral negotiations and the role of the soft power. In addition, Cathy is a graduate researcher at the Korea Peace Institute where she works together with like-minded graduate researchers on the topic of peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Driven by a commitment to enhance understanding and peace regionally and globally, Cathy Kang aspires to contribute to policy-making that supports stability and development in the region. He is particularly fascinated by the interplay of cultural diplomacy and political strategy on the Korean Peninsula.
Outside of academia, Cathy enjoys networking, traveling and coffee.
Caroline Kearney
Caroline Kearney is a Ph.D. candidate in Korean Studies at Yonsei University and 2023-4 U.S.-Asia Grand Strategy Predoctoral Fellow at the University of Southern California’s Korean Studies Institute. Her dissertation seeks to interpret North Korean foreign policy through state media analysis. Previously, she authored the Month-in-Review publication for NK Pro. Prior to that she organized dialogues and workshops on the Korean Peninsula issue at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPCS) in Cambodia. She is the author of a CPCS report titled “Seizing a Window of Opportunity for Peace on the Korean Peninsula” and has written analysis for the Institute for Security and Development Policy and Jeju Peace Institute. Caroline has participated in advocacy activities to promote peace on the peninsula in Washington, D.C., Brussels, and New York.
Minseon Ku
Minseon Ku is the 2023-4 Spencer Fellow in US Foreign Policy and International Security at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, Dartmouth College. She is an incoming postdoctoral fellow in the Diplomacy Project at the Global Research Institute at the College of William & Mary for 2024-6. She is working on a book project on summitry and public opinion. Her other research interests include International Relations theory, diplomatic practices, public opinion and rapprochement, US-Northeast Asia relations and inter-Korea diplomacy. Her research has been published in the International Organization and the Hague Journal of Diplomacy. She has also contributed policy commentaries on Northeast Asia in various outlets including The Diplomat, 38 North, The National Interest, and the East Asia Forum. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the Ohio State University, a Master’s degree and a BA from Yonsei University in Seoul. She was also a visiting junior scholar at the Office of the Korea Chair at CSIS and a research assistant at the National Assembly Budget Office in South Korea.
Jinwon Lee
Jinwon Lee is Ph.D. candidate of Political Science at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. She served as a researcher at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy and a research associate at the Korea Institute for National Unification. Her areas of research interest include US-Korea alliance, nuclear weapons, nuclear proliferation, and alliance politics. She received her B.A. in political science and an M.A. in international peace and security from Korea University. She is currently concluding my time as a 2023-2024 Hans J. Morgenthau Grand Strategy Fellow at Notre Dame’s international Security Center. Her doctoral research examines intra-alliance relationship patterns and intra-alliance dynamics’ impacts on each alliance member state’s behaviors. Why do some strong alliance member states provide core alliance commitments to their minor allies while others do not? Among the variety of alliance commitments, she focuses on analyzing a patron’s variance in providing a nuclear umbrella to its minor allies.
Emma Whitmyer
Emma Whitmyer is a Program Officer for the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) in New York. She works with ASPI’s Vice President of International Security and Diplomacy Daniel Russel and Associate Director Blake Berger on issues relating to East and Southeast Asia. Prior to joining ASPI, she was a Junior Scholars Fellow with the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A large portion of her background has been focused on the U.S.-ROK alliance and Korean Peninsula affairs.
Emma has a Master’s of Global Affairs & Policy from Yonsei University in South Korea, as well as a Bachelor’s from Eastern Michigan University in International Affairs and Business German.
Yerin Yoon
Yerin Yoon currently serves as a research Fellow at Pacific Forum, where she focuses her research on security issues surrounding the Korean Peninsula, with particular emphasis on the US-ROK alliance and the ROK military affairs.
Prior to joining Pacific Forum, Yerin worked as the US foreign policy researcher at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS) of Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA), Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During this time, she devoted herself to organizing and hosting domestic & international conferences focusing on the Indo-Pacific strategies and the U.S.-ROK alliance. Additionally, she conducted research and authored reports in support of professors in understanding the U.S. domestic politics and foreign policy, facilitating a connection to Korea’s foreign policy objectives.
Yerin gained valuable experience in North Korean research during her Internship at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES). Analyzing research data from North Korea, she assisted professors in their North Korean affairs and the Korean Peninsula security issues.
Her research interests stem from her practical experience as a surface warfare ships officer in the ROK Navy, where she served for five years. Through her military service, she acquired firsthand knowledge and expertise in the field of security, including engagement in a naval combat with a North Korean warship in the vicinity of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in 2014.
Yerin holds dual B.A. degrees in International Relations and Military Science from the Republic of Korea Naval Academy. Driven by her unwavering commitment to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, she is embarking on further studies in Fletcher School at Tufts University this fall. With her diverse background and expertise, she is dedicated to making a meaningful contribution to promoting peace and security in Indo-Pacific region, with a particular focus on the Korean Peninsula and the U.S.-ROK alliance.