Category: Geopolitical Affairs

Dr. Dean P. Chen is Professor of Political Science at the School of Humanities and Global Studies, Ramapo College of New Jersey. He holds his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is the author of three books on U.S.-Taiwan and cross-strait relations: U.S.-China-Taiwan in the Age of Trump and Biden: Towards a Nationalist Strategy (New York: Routledge, 2022), U.S.-China Rivalry and Taiwan’s Mainland Policy: Security, Nationalism, and the 1992 Consensus(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), and U.S.-Taiwan Strait Policy: TheOrigins of Strategic Ambiguity (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2012). His articles have appeared in Asian Survey, Asian security, Asian Politics & Policy, Pacific Focus, and International Relations of the Asia-Pacific. Commentaries and policy analyses have appeared in the East West Center Occasional Paper Series, The National Interest, Global Taiwan Brief, Taiwan Insight, and China-US Focus. In 2014-16, Chen served as coordinator of the Conference Group on Taiwan Studies of the American Political Science Association (APSA). He was a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) Taiwan Fellow in 2014 and a Fulbright U.S. Scholar in the People’s Republic of China during 2017-18. Currently, Chen serves on the Board of Directors of the American Association for Chinese Studies (AACS). In November 2023, Chen received a grant from the Taipei Economic & Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in Washington DC to host the annual Taiwan & Asia Program conference at Ramapo College of New Jersey. The conference featured China and Taiwan experts in the United States and around the world to discuss and examine the changing US-China-Taiwan strategic relations in light of the 2024 presidential elections in Taiwan and the United States.

Sean King joined Park Strategies, a business advisory firm founded by former U.S. Senator Alfonse D’Amato, in 2006. His focus is Asia, generating business and supporting clients in the region. He helped manage the firm’s Taipei office from 2010-16. Mr. King is also a University of Notre Dame Liu Institute for Asia & Asian Affairs Affiliated Scholar. In October 2022, he was a Visiting Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), an autonomous think tank and graduate school within Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Before joining Park Strategies, Mr. King spent five years at the United States Department of Commerce in Washington, DC, where he served as Senior Advisor for Asia in the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service (USFCS). Before joining Commerce, Mr. King was based in Singapore for both PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Citibank. He has an MBA from Notre Dame and an undergraduate degree from the American University in Washington, D.C. A regular media presence, Mr. King first visited Taiwan in 1997 where he also interned for Citibank in 1998.

Dr. Kuyoun Chung is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the Kangwon National University. Her research focuses on US foreign policy, public opinion and strategic narratives, as well as security issues in the Indo-Pacific, including alliance politics, regional security architecture, and maritime security. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. Previously, she was a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at UCLA, a visiting professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, and a research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification. Additionally, she has served as a member of the policy advisory committee of the Ministry of Unification, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, and the Republic of Korea Navy.

Gi-Wook Shin is the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea in Sociology and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; the director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center; the founding director of the Korea Program, all at Stanford University. As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on social movements, nationalism, development, democracy, and international relations.

Shin is the author/editor of twenty-five books and numerous articles. His recent books include Korean Democracy in Crisis: The Threat of Illiberalism, Populism, and Polarization (2022); The North Korean Conundrum: Balancing Human Rights and Nuclear Security (2021); Demographics and Innovation in the Asia-Pacific (2021); Shifting Gears in Innovation Policy from Asia (2020); Strategic, Policy and Social Innovation for a Post-Industrial Korea: Beyond the Miracle (2018); Superficial Korea (2017); Divergent Memories: Opinion Leaders and the Asia-Pacific War (2016); Global Talent: Skilled Labor as Social Capital in Korea (2015); Criminality, Collaboration, and Reconciliation: Europe and Asia Confronts the Memory of World War II (2014); New Challenges for Maturing Democracies in Korea and Taiwan (2014); Asia’s Middle Powers? (2013); Troubled Transition: North Korea’s Politics, Economy, and External Relations (2013); History Textbooks and the Wars in Asia: Divided Memories (2011); South Korean Social Movements: From Democracy to Civil Society (2011); One Alliance, Two Lenses: U.S.-Korea Relations in a New Era (2010); Cross Currents: Regionalism and Nationalism in Northeast Asia (2007); Rethinking Historical Injustice and Reconciliation in Northeast Asia (2006); and Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy (2006). Due to the wide popularity of his publications, many of them have been translated and distributed to Korean audiences. His articles have appeared in academic journals including American Journal of Sociology, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Political Science Quarterly, International Sociology, Nations and Nationalism, Pacific Affairs, Asian Survey, and Journal of Democracy. 

Shin is currently writing two books – Next Korea (in Korean and English) and Talent Giants in the Asia-Pacific Century. The former is based on his monthly columns published in Shindonga (New East Asia), Korea’s oldest monthly magazine, that have addressed main challenges and solutions for Korea’s future. The latter is a comparative study of talent strategies of Japan, Australia, China, and India that were instrumental to their rise. In Summer 2023, Shin launched the Stanford Next Asia Policy Lab (SNAPL) which is a new initiative committed to addressing emergent social, cultural, economic, and political challenges in Asia. Across four research themes– “Talent Flows and Development,” “Nationalism and Racism,” “U.S.-Asia Relations,” and “Democratic Crisis and Reform”–the lab will bring scholars focused on Asia to produce interdisciplinary, problem-oriented, policy-relevant, and comparative studies and publications. 

Shin is not only the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, but also continues to actively raise funds for Korean/Asian studies at Stanford. He gives frequent lectures and seminars on topics ranging from Korean nationalism and politics to Korea’s foreign relations and historical reconciliation in Northeast Asia and to talent strategies. He serves on councils and advisory boards in the United States and South Korea and promotes policy dialogue between the two allies. He regularly writes op-eds and gives interviews to the media in both Korean and English.

Before coming to Stanford in 2001, Shin taught at the University of Iowa (1991-94) and the University of California, Los Angeles (1994-2001). After receiving his BA from Yonsei University in Korea, he was awarded his MA and PhD from the University of Washington in 1991.