Non-Resident Kelly Fellows

Mr. Nate Adler is an MPA candidate in International Relations at Princeton University and an MA candidate in East Asian Studies at Harvard University. He received a National Security Language Program scholarship from the Dept. of State to study in South Korea and a Next Generation Nuclear Safeguards Initiative grant from the Dept. of Energy in Summer 2009. He previously worked at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea as an International Trade Analyst. Prior to that he did research in Korea as a Fulbright Scholar.

Mr. Paul Arant is a doctoral student in Korean literature at the University of Hawai’i, currently studying in South Korea. Mr. Arant received his MA in Korean Studies from UH. His thesis focused on the early ethnic history of peoples located on the Korean peninsula, and how this research challenges notions of racial homogeneity and ethno-nationalism in Korea. He is president of the Korean Graduate Students Association at UH. His research interests include early and classical Korean history, the concepts and history of ethnic nationalism in Korea, and geopolitical and security affairs of East Asia.

Ms. Ria Baldevia is the founder and CEO of The Sensus Group, a company specializing in online trends research and social media strategy. She was a field/political coordinator in Hawaii for Obama's presidential campaign. She previously worked as an education consultant for the Chung-Dahm Institute in South Korea. Her interests include South Korean society and politics, including emerging political leaders.

Ms. Jiun Bang, from South Korea, is an associate at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), a government-affiliated defense think tank in Seoul, and assistant editor of the Korean Journal of Defense Analysis. She is juggling a part-time research position at the Institute for Development and Human Security at her alma mater, Ewha Womans University in Seoul. She received her MA from Georgetown University, where course work focused on non/counter-proliferation of NBC weapons. Her current passion lies in security issues enveloping Northeast Asia, as well as those pertaining to nuclear weapons.

Ms. See-Won Byun is a research associate with the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy at The Asia Foundation. Previously, she assisted research for the CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies and the Brookings Institution’s Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies. In Korea, she was a program officer for UN University exchanges and an editorial assistant at the Institute of East & West Studies while completing an MA in Chinese area studies at Yonsei University. She has an MA in international affairs from George Washington University, a BA in economics from Brown University, and studied international politics at Peking University.

Mr. Sungmin Cho is studying toward his MA in International Relations at Peking University. He received his BA in International Relations at Korea University and spent a year as an exchange student at the University of British Columbia in 2003-2004. In 2005, Mr. Cho joined the ROK Army and served as an intelligence officer for three years, including a seven-month tour to Iraq in 2006. Currently, he is an intern at the Beijing office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and is working on his dissertation on the North Korean nuclear issue and its impact on Sino-US relations.

Ms. Hyun Jung Choi, a native of South Korea who grew up in Singapore, works at Standard Charter Bank in Seoul. She received her MA in Law and Diplomacy at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, focusing on international security, international trade, commercial policies, international negotiation, and conflict resolution. She received her BA in International Relations and Economics at Tufts University and worked as an investment banking analyst with Lehman Brothers in New York. She worked as a policy researcher and consultant in Jakarta, and with Rohan Gunaratna, a renowned terrorism expert at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore. She is a former Vasey Fellow at the Pacific Forum CSIS.

Mr. Seukhoon Paul Choi was born in South Korea and emigrated to the U.S. with his family when he was one year old. After growing up in New York, he received his BA in Philosophy, Politics & Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004. He then moved to Seoul where he had numerous jobs, received his MA in International Cooperation from Seoul National University in 2007, and was commissioned as an officer in the ROK Army the same year. He now teaches cadets at the Korea Military Academy.

Mr. Leif-Eric Easley is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in East Asia international relations at Harvard University's Department of Government. His research on national identity, trust and security cooperation includes extensive fieldwork in Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing. He is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Southern California's Korean Studies Institute. Mr. Easley was Japan area editor for the Harvard Asia Quarterly and served as a teaching fellow at Harvard in Asian International Relations and American Foreign Policy. He regularly speaks at international conferences and his research appears in a variety of academic journals, supplemented by commentaries in major newspapers.

Capt. Christopher Gin, USA, is a 2005 West Point graduate. From 2005-2007, he was a Graduate Degree Fellow at the East-West Center and earned an MA in Chinese Studies from the University of Hawaii. Previously, he served as an Assistant China Desk Officer at US Pacific Command, Camp Smith, Hawaii in the Strategic Plans and Policy Division. He is stationed in Hawaii with a Stryker Brigade and returned in February 2009 after a deployment to Iraq. He is a graduate of the Army's Airborne, Air Assault, Ranger, and Tank Commander's courses. His academic interests lie in the dynamic U.S. role in East Asia.

Mr. Rian Jensen works as the Program Officer, Asia Division, International Republican Institute (IRI), designing and managing democracy promotion programs for North Korean defectors in South Korea, working on closed society development assistance, strategic planning, performance management, civil society organizational development, and political party capacity building. He received his MA (with Honors) in International Relations from John Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies and awaits his first assignment as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer.

Mr. In-Seung Kay, from South Korea, is a Ph.D. student in political science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked at the East-West Center Washington office (2006-7), The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation at Washington, DC (summer 2005), Ilmin International Relations Institute at Korea University (2003), and The Korean Institute of International Studies (2002). Mr. Kay received his BA in History at Korea University and obtained his MA in Security Studies at Georgetown University. He is working for ROK National Assemblywoman Ok-Nim Chung as a policy advisor and senior legislative assistant.

Mr. David S. Lee works with Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong. He is interested in North Korean refugees from a human rights perspective and how they integrate into South Korean society. He looks at the growing population of North Korean refugees in South Korea as a litmus test of how South Korea will treat North Koreans in a post-unified Korea, and is researching the status of North Koreans in South Korea and identifying ways in which sociological integration can be better facilitated. He earned a J.D. from UCLA School of Law, where he was an Articles Editor for the Pacific Basin Law Journal, and his MA in East Asian Studies from Harvard University, where he was Korea Area Editor for the Harvard Asia Quarterly.

Dr. Ji-Young Lee is a visiting assistant professor of politics and East Asian studies and Mellon postdoctoral fellow at Oberlin College. She received her MA in Security Studies (2004) and PhD in international relations (2009) at Georgetown University. Her research and teaching interests include East Asian security, International Political Economy, and International Relations theory. She previously worked for the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, Seoul, Korea while she was completing her MA at Seoul National University, and was an East-West Center POSCO Visiting Fellow.

Ms. Julia Joo-A Lee is pursuing a graduate degree at Harvard University. Her areas of interest include international relations of East Asia, globalization, and terrorism. As a former CSIS intern, she did research for "A Cooperative Threat Reduction Program for North Korea’s Weapons of Mass Destruction." In previous work with the ROK National Assembly, she dealt with unification, foreign affairs, and trade issues. At the Ilmin International Relations Institute in Seoul, she drafted summaries on the North Korean nuclear crisis and US national security policies regarding North Korea.

Dr. Li Mingjiang is an Assistant Professor at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His main research interests include the rise of China in the context of East Asian regional relations and Sino-U.S. relations, China’s diplomatic history, and domestic sources of China’s international strategies. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston University. He is the editor of Soft Power: China’s Emerging Strategy in International Politics (Lexington-Rowman & Littlefiled, 2009) and the editor of several other volumes on China’s international relations in Asia. He is doing a research project on China’s policy toward the North Korean nuclear issue.

Dr. Tara O, a U.S. Air Force major, is an Assistant Professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy.  Her research areas include Korean unification, U.S.-ROK alliance, and regional security arrangements.  She received her Ph.D. in Public Policy from University of Texas at Austin, MPA from Princeton University, and BA in International Relations from University of California at Davis.  She worked on a variety of defense, security, and politico-military issues at the Pentagon, the Combined Forces Command/U.S. Forces Korea, and the U.S. European Command.  She has also worked in Asia, Europe, and Africa in the private, public, and nongovernmental sectors, including RAND, U.S. Agency for International Development, and United Nations Association of the USA.

Ms. A. Greer Pritchett is the Assistant Project Director of the Northeast Asia Project at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy in New York, where she manages projects on multilateral cooperation for a denuclearized Korean Peninsula; the possible creation of a Northeast Asian Security Forum, China-Taiwan relations; and the U.S. alliances with Japan and South Korea. In 2007 – 2008, she served as a visiting lecturer at the China Foreign Affairs University. She has also worked for the International Crisis Group and the International Peace Academy. She received her BA summa cum laude from Hunter College.

Mr. Junbeom Pyon is the founder and a consultant at INP Consulting Group. He was an analyst at SEC Research Institute under the Ministry of National Defense in Korea. He has a MA in Government and BA in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University and did graduate studies at Waseda University. Mr. Pyon was the 2006-2007 Vasey Fellow at the Pacific Forum CSIS and has worked at the UN Headquarters, the Brookings Institution, and KIDA.

Ms. Jennifer Shin works as a Strategic/Nuclear Security Analyst with Defense Solutions Group-Strategic Missions, Science Applications International Corporation. She provides analytical support to the Office of the Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Matters on the national strategic deterrent and related issues. She has worked with the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation to support the North East Asia Cooperation Dialogue, focusing on security stability within Northeast Asia. Her research interests include Northeast Asian security, nonproliferation, disarmament, and nuclear policy regarding the DPRK.

Ms. Jiyon Shin graduated from Ewha Womans University. She majored in International Studies, concentrated in Northeast Asian Politics & Diplomacy. She is working at Seoul Metropolitan Government at the Urban Competitiveness Headquarters as an International Program Manager at the Seoul Global Center. She served as Vasey Fellow of 2007-08, analyzing Korea's socio-political changes, and inter-Korean exchanges.

Ms. Aleksandra Varova has lived in Korea for almost 10 years and is a research assistant with the Samsung Economic Research Institute. She began her career in the Russian Embassy in Seoul, coordinating high-level negotiations on economic and energy cooperation between Russia and Korea. She joined Samsung Economic Research Institute, leading research and analysis on economic and political trends in Korea and Russia. She then joined Samsung Engineering to develop its potential in energy markets in Russia and acquired expertise in assessing the needs facing Korean businesses and deep regional knowledge.