Welcome! I am a Security & Foreign Policy postdoctoral fellow at the Global Research Institute (GRI) and a faculty affiliate of Public Policy at William & Mary (W&M). Previously, I was a 2022-2023 postdoctoral fellow at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) at Stanford University and a 2023-2024 faculty affiliate of the Government Department at W&M.
I study international security and cooperation, with a focus on the strategic behaviors of secondary states (e.g., small & middle powers) in the Asia-Pacific amid China's rise, and draw out implications for regional stability and the US grand strategy amid China’s rise. I use a variety of methods, including network analysis, which is a central part of my dissertation. My current book project, Connection Strategies of Asia-Pacific Secondary States: Security Cooperation and Network Power, which builds on my dissertation and examines how Asia-Pacific secondary states enhance their security and autonomy in a complex strategic environment. Existing studies on balancing, bandwagoning, and hedging rely on linear frameworks that position secondary states along a spectrum of alignment – with the US, China, or somewhere in between. However, these approaches oversimplify the multi-agent environment in which they operate. To better understand their security cooperation behaviors, this book introduces a new framework that examines how secondary states navigate the broader network structures they are embedded in. Building on the network power perspective, I argue that secondary states actively cultivate and manage cooperative security ties to enhance their security and strategic autonomy. To explore this argument, this book sheds light on joint military exercises (JMEs) and strategic partnerships as important yet understudied measures of interstate security cooperation in international relations (IR). Drawing on original mixed-method evidence, including network analysis and case studies, this book uncovers significant patterns of security cooperation often overlooked in existing literature, which tends to emphasize formal alliances. Using a unique dataset of JMEs and strategic partnerships in the Asia-Pacific (1970–2024), the book reveals that over the past two decades, U.S. junior allies and strategic partners, even those with territorial or maritime disputes with China, have increasingly conducted JMEs with Beijing while pursuing cooperation with the U.S. and other peer secondary states. These security cooperation patterns indicate the emergence of a heterarchical structure, evolving from a fragmented hub-and-spokes system to a more integrated, less centralized network with reduced peripheral segmentation. My other work, which has appeared in International Politics, examines South Korea’s middle power diplomacy. I received my Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC), M.A. in Asian Studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service (SFS), and B.A. in International Studies at Ewha Womans University. I was a 2022-2023 US-Korea NextGen Scholar, an initiative by the CSIS Korea Chair and the USC Korean Studies Institute (KSI) and a 2019-2021 US-Asia Grand Strategy predoctoral fellow at the USC KSI. I also served as a contributing author of ‘Korea-Japan relations’ in Comparative Connections published by the Pacific Forum. |