Korea's Place in Coalitional Diplomacy
The international system today is characterized by increasing peer competition between the United States and China. As China has become more assertive in its territorial claims, institution-building, and assertion of political authority, the United States has sought to work with allies and partners to reinforce the Western rules-based international order. It is in this context that Professor Cha will discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by these emerging international dynamics for South Korea. While South Korea must make difficult choices between its security and economic patron, the absence of such decisions is also problematic for Korean national interest, as well as for South Korea's relationships with the United States and with China.
Victor Cha is Senior Vice President and the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He joined CSIS in May 2009 as a senior adviser and the inaugural holder of the Korea Chair. He is also professor of government and holds the D.S. Song-KF Chair in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service (SFS) at Georgetown University. In July 2019, he was appointed vice dean for faculty and graduate affairs in SFS. He left the White House in 2007 after serving since 2004 as director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council (NSC). At the White House, 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. He is the author of five 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), which was selected by Foreign Affairs as a “Best Book on the Asia-Pacific for 2012.” His newest book is Powerplay: Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia (Princeton University Press, 2016). He is also writing a new book on Korean unification. He has published articles on international relations and East Asia in journals, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Security, Political Science Quarterly, Survival, International Studies Quarterly, International Journal of the History of Sport, and Asian Survey.
For more information on the Ra Jong-yil Lecture Series at the University of Cambridge go to: www.ames.cam.ac.uk/whats-on/ra-jong-yil-lecture