About Me

I grew up in Seoul, South Korea, until I was 14, when our family decided to move to White Rock, Canada. It is a beautiful small coastal town just north of the border with the United States. We ended up staying there for one year. I then moved to New England, where I attended high school, college, and grad school. Proud to say I'm pretty much Boston-made, and I miss the turkeys in Cambridge.  

I did my master's degree in China. This was my first time in mainland China, and I was determined to make full use of it—I traveled a lot. I also studied hard. My Chinese was quite good at the time, and I even took some courses taught in Chinese (this was before the age of AI), though I have been losing my spoken Chinese since I left. One other cool fact from that time: I got to talk to North Koreans for the first time while playing soccer there.

Like all eligible South Korean male citizens, I joined the military after finishing sophomore year in college. I first served in a maintenance battalion in an infantry division in the Republic of Korea Army and later deployed with the South Korean engineering company as part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) in Bor, Jonglei State. 

These experiences have shaped my research in ways I didn’t expect. I’d originally been more interested in American politics, but I became intellectually drawn to security studies after my tour to South Sudan, where I witnessed a civil war break out and a massive humanitarian crisis unfold. I also saw how military organizations plan and conduct missions.

I still try to travel whenever I can and read newspapers from different countries and political leanings, partly to keep up my languages and partly to see where perspectives might diverge. It also helps me test my own prior beliefs before I bring them into my research. 

Thinking about international politics, war, and nuclear weapons is a lot, and I often like to take breaks. I like to run, watch baseball, birdwatch, or aimlessly wander through museums in DC. I also tried mixed martial arts as a stress outlet, but quickly learned I am quite injury-prone. I think I will stick with birdwatching.