Category: Geopolitical Affairs

Professor Victor D. Cha is Distinguished University Professor, D.S. Song-KF Chairholder, and Professor of  Government in the Department of Government and School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.  He is also Senior Vice President for Asia and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International  Studies in Washington, D.C. He is the author of seven books, including the award-winning Alignment  Despite Antagonism: The United States-Korea-Japan Security Triangle (Stanford University Press, 1999)  (winner of the 2000 Ohira Book Prize), and The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future (Harper  Collins Ecco, 2012 selected by Foreign Affairs as a “Best Book on the Asia-Pacific for 2012.” His most  recent book is Korea: A New History of South and North (Yale University Press, 2023) with Ramon  Pacheco Pardo. His other books are Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sport in Asia (Columbia  University Press, 2009); Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies (Columbia University  Press, 2003) with David Kang; and Powerplay: The Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia (Princeton University Press, 2016). His forthcoming book is The Black Box: Methods and Data in the Study  of Korean Unification and North Korea (Columbia University Press, 2024). His articles on international  relations and Asian affairs have appeared in numerous journals including International Security, Political  Science Quarterly, International Studies Quarterly, Armed Forces and Society, Foreign Affairs, Asian  Survey, Journal of Asian Studies, International Journal of the History of Sport, and Journal of Strategic  Studies. 

He was appointed in 2021 by Joseph R. Biden administration to serve on the Defense Policy Board in an  advisory role to the Secretary of Defense. He formerly served on the White House National Security  Council where he was responsible primarily for Japan, the Korean peninsula, Australia/New Zealand and  Pacific Island nation affairs. Dr. Cha was also the Deputy Head of Delegation for the United States at the  Six Party Talks in Beijing, and received two Outstanding Service commendations during his tenure at the  NSC.  

Dr. Cha is a two-time Fulbright Scholar, former Olin Fellow at Harvard University, and former Hoover,  CISAC, and Koret Fellow at Stanford University. He currently serves on ten editorial boards of academic  journals and is co-editor of the Contemporary Asia Book Series at Columbia University Press. In 2022, he  was elected to serve on the Board for the National Endowment for Democracy, and he remains a Senior  Fellow in Human Freedom (non-resident) at the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas, Texas. He is a  Foreign Affairs Contributor for MSNBC and NBC News. Dr. Cha has appeared in a variety of media  including ESPN, The Colbert Report, and a cameo role (as himself) in the 2012 film Red Dawn. He co hosts The Impossible State podcast and The Capital Cable YouTube show. 

In 2023, he was named Distinguished University Professor, the highest honor bestowed upon a tenured  faculty member at Georgetown. He is the recipient of the 2023 Hubert H. Humphrey award from the  American Political Science Association for notable public service by a political scientist and the 2023  Joseph Kurzel Memorial Prize for excellence in scholarship and public service (also from APSA). 

Dr. Cha received his Ph.D. in political science at Columbia University, MIA from Columbia, B.A. Honors  in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University, and A.B. in Economics from Columbia. He was born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Ramon Pacheco Pardo is Professor of International Relations at King’s College London and the KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Brussels School of Governance of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is also King’s Regional Envoy for East and South East Asia, helping to shape and implement the university’s strategy for the region.

Prof Pacheco Pardo is also Adjunct Fellow (Non-Resident) with the Korea Chair at CSIS, Scientific Council Member at Elcano Royal Institute and Committee Member at CSCAP EU. He has held visiting positions at Korea University, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Melbourne University.

His publications include the books Korea: A New History of South & North (Yale University Press, 2023; with Victor Cha), South Korea’s Grand Strategy: Making Its Own Destiny (Columbia University Press, 2023), Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop (Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2022) and North Korea-US Relations from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un (Routledge, 2019). Prof Pacheco Pardo has been editor of Millennium: Journal of International Studies and currently sits in the editorial boards of East Asia: An International Quarterly and Korea-Europe Review.

He has participated in track 1.5 and 2 dialogues with South Korea, North Korea, China, Japan and the United States. Prof Pacheco Pardo has testified before the European Parliament and consulted and advised NATO, the OECD and the governments of Canada, the EU, South Korea, Spain, the UK and the United States, among others. He is a frequent media commentator on North East Asian affairs and EU-East Asia relations.

Ambassador Bonnie Denise Jenkins, PhD, has served as the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security since July 22, 2021. As Under Secretary, she leads three bureaus: the Arms Control, Compliance and Verification Bureau; the International Security and Nonproliferation Bureau; and the Political-Military Affairs Bureau. In addition, as of May 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken named Under Secretary Jenkins as the senior official to lead the Department’s efforts on AUKUS implementation.

U/S Jenkins previously served in the Obama Administration as Special Envoy and Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN) from July 2009 until January 2017. Ambassador Jenkins coordinated U.S. efforts on threat reduction globally and U.S. government programs in chemical, biological, nuclear, and radiological (CBRN) security. She was the State Department lead for all four of the Nuclear Security Summits held from 2010 to 2016, as well as the U.S. Representative to the G7 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction.

Before serving as Coordinator, she was a Legal Adviser to the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency where she provided advice to U.S. ambassadors and delegations negotiating arms control and nonproliferation treaties. Ambassador Jenkins also provided legal advice to treaty implementation bodies including the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Open Skies Treaty, the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, and the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). She has worked with international institutions such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Health Organization, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the Office of Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, Interpol, and the BWC Implementation Support Unit.

From its inception in 2017 until April 2021, Ambassador Jenkins was the Founder, Executive Director, and Board Chair of Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS), a leading advocacy organization supporting women of color in the security and peace-building sector that believes global issues are best approached from a variety of perspectives.

Ambassador Jenkins has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and George Washington Elliott School of International Affairs. Ambassador Jenkins has a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Virginia; an LL.M. in International and Comparative Law from the Georgetown University Law Center; an M.P.A. from the State University of New York at Albany; a J.D. from Albany Law School; and a B.A. from Amherst College. She also attended The Hague Academy for International Law. Jenkins is a retired U.S. Naval Reserve Officer and received numerous awards for her military service. She is a member of the New York State Bar.

Major Jessica Taylor, US Air Force Reserve, is a nonresident fellow in the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. She is currently pursuing her PhD in international relations with a focus on the Indo-Pacific as a part of the Security Studies program at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. In addition, Taylor is a logistics readiness officer in the US Air Force Reserve. Taylor has served in the US Department of Defense in both military and civil service capacities for nearly twenty years. She most recently served in South Korea from 2019 to 2021 as an international relations strategist where she provided geopolitical analysis and advice to the headquarters command staffs of United Nations Command, ROK/US Combined Forces Command, and US Forces Korea. In addition to experience in East Asia, Taylor has had assignments in South Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Taylor holds a BA in biology from Baylor University and an MS in foreign service from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.