Dr. CHOI Kang is the President at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Previously, he was the dean of Planning and Assessment at the Korean National Diplomatic Academy. In 2012, Dr. Choi served as the president at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS). He was also a professor and director general for American Studies at IFANS, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, and senior director for Policy Planning and Coordination on the National Security Council Secretariat. He holds several advisory board memberships including: the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Unification of the National Assembly; Ministry of National Defense; Ministry of Unification; Air Force Development Committee; and the National Unification Advisory Council. Dr. Choi was also a South Korean delegate to the Four-Party Talks. He writes extensively on the ROK-US alliance, North Korean military affairs, inter-Korean relations, crisis management, and multilateral security cooperation. Dr. Choi received his B.A. from Kyunghee University, M.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his Ph.D. in political science from Ohio State University.

Dr. LEE Jaehyon is a principal fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. He is a member of the advisory group for the Korean Coast Guard. Dr Lee is also a Vice President of the Korean Association of Southeast Asian Studies. Dr Lee’s research focuses on ASEAN, Southeast Asian politics, regionalism, and non-traditional and human security issues. Recently, he has been expanding research to include Indo-Pacific and superpower rivalry in the region. His publications include “South Korea and the South China Sea: A Domestic and International Balancing Act” (2016), “What Asia Wants from the US: Voices from the Region” (2018), “Southeast Asian Perspectives of the United States and China: A SWOT Analysis” (2022). He translated “The Pivot: The Future of American Statecraft in Asia” by Kurt Campbell into Korean. Dr Lee received a B.A. and M.A. from Yonsei University and his PhD in politics from Murdoch University, Australia.

Dr. Leif-Eric EASLEY is a Non-resident fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Dr. Easley is also an associate professor of International Studies at Ewha Womans University where he teaches international security and political economics. His research interests include contested national identities and changing levels of trust in the bilateral security relationships of Northeast Asia. He was the Northeast Asian History Fellow at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) at Stanford University. He was also a visiting scholar at Yonsei University and the University of Southern California’s Korean Studies Institute. He is actively involved in US-Asia dialogues (Track II diplomacy) with the Asan Institute and the Pacific Forum-Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Dr. Easley received his B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in government from Harvard University.