Former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Stephen Bosworth Named Chairman of the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS
Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, Chairman, U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS (Photo: Anja Niedringhaus/AP)
Washington, D.C.—June 25, 2013— Stephen Bosworth, former U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Korea, will join the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) as the new chairman of the U.S.-Korea Institute (USKI) at SAIS, effective July 1.
Bosworth recently retired as dean of Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, a position he assumed in 2001 after a long and distinguished career in the U.S. Department of State.
“Ambassador Bosworth is one of America’s most distinguished diplomats with deep knowledge of Korea, its global role and regional interests. He will be a valuable addition to SAIS’s Korean Studies Program and the U.S.-Korea Institute’s critical work on Korea and Asia,” said SAIS Dean Vali Nasr.
During his 30 years in the foreign service, Bosworth served as U.S. ambassador to Tunisia, the Philippines and the Republic of Korea as well as director of Policy Planning at the State Department. After leaving the government, Bosworth was president of the United States-Japan Foundation from 1987 to 1995 and the executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization from 1995 to 1997. He also served as the U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy for the Obama administration from 2009 to 2011.
He has authored numerous articles and studies on public policy and international affairs. In 2006, he co-authored with Morton Abramowitz, Chasing the Sun: Rethinking East Asian Policy.
As USKI’s new chairman, Bosworth succeeds Don Oberdorfer, the founder of the institute, who will become chairman emeritus.
“I explained that Americans expected Beijing, a communist dictatorship, neither to understand nor appreciate our Bill of Rights. But it is far more disturbing that an American ally, who aspires to the same democratic values that we do, would demonstrate such a lack of understanding.” ~ Dennis P. Halpin
In 2010, the community of Palisades Park, New Jersey dedicated a small memorial to the memory of the “comfort women,” the tens of thousands of women, many of whom were Korean, who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese military during World War II. In May 2012, the Japanese government sent two delegations of Japanese officials to Palisades Park to implore the local government to remove the memorial; their efforts were unsuccessful and have thus, inspired other Korean communities across the United States to erect similar memorials.
On the first anniversary of this international incident, Dennis P. Halpin, former House Foreign Relations Committee staff member and current Visiting Scholar at the US-Korea Institute at SAIS, discusses discusses why the Japanese government’s efforts, beyond being ineffective, were unconstitutional and should not be repeated. Download USKI Policy Brief “Palisades Park and the First Amendment,” by Dennis P. Halpin.
Dennis P. Halpinis currently a visiting scholar at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in South Korea, U.S. consul in Pusan, and a House Foreign Affairs Committee staff member for over twelve years.
USKI’s Joel Wit and Jenny Town published an article on ForeignPolicy.com discussing what the successful North Korean rocket launch means for US foreign policy towards the DPRK. The Obama administration now faces the choice of how his record on North Korea will be remembered: a hard problem more or less contained or a rogue state armed with dozens of nuclear weapons well on its way to threatening the US. Obama’s second term is a second chance to tackle this important foreign policy issue. Is he up to the challenge?
Read the article “Launch This” at ForeignPolicy.com.
Joel Wit is a visiting scholar at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and founder of its North Korea website, 38 North. Jenny Town is a research associate at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and editor of38 North.
On September 22, 2011, the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS, in partnership with Peking University Center for International and Strategic Studies and Chung Ang University Graduate School of International Studies will host a one-day conference exploring the numerous political changes that will take place throughout Asia and the United States in 2012.
Panels will discuss what 2012 leadership may look like for the United States, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and North Korea, as well as what the effects of these changes might have on regional security and security cooperation in the future.
For a full list of speakers and to RSVP, click here.
The U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS is pleased to announce the release of the 2010 Edition of the SAIS U.S.-Korea Yearbook.
The Yearbook analyzes important developments in North and South Korea that characterized their relations in 2010. Each paper was written by a SAIS student from the course, “The Two Koreas: Contemporary Research and Record,” in the fall of 2010. Their insights were based on extensive reading and study as well as on numerous interviews conducted with government officials, scholars, NGO workers, academics and private sector experts both in Washington and Seoul.
In November 2010, the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS and Korea Institute of Finance, co-hosted the event, “State of the World Economy, 2011-2012: Whither or Wither?” sponsored by the Asian Studies Program at SAIS and the JoongAng Ilbo. This conference was meant to facilitate the exchange of predictions, as well as the assumptions underpinning those predictions, for the global economy over the next two years among such noted economists as Kevin H. O’Rourke, John B. Taylor, Daniel Rosen, Marcus Noland, and more. Special emphasis was placed on key economies such as China, India, Japan, and South Korea.
This volume contains the speeches and papers (further refined and edited post-conference) presented at that conference, in order to help inform and advise both policymakers and the general public on what may be in store in the coming years.
On March 29, 2011, the U.S.-Korea Institute and SAIS and Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress cohosted a seminar entitled, “Leadership Matters: The U.S.-ROK Alliance in the Lead Up to 2012.” The Honorable Lee Jae-oh, South Korea’s Minister of Special Affairs and 4 time National Assemblyman delivered the keynote speech for this event, entitled “Global Leadership: A New Vision for the U.S.-ROK Alliance,” highlighting such key issues the KORUS FTA, coordination on North Korea policy, and his vision for creating a Northeast Asian Community of Peace and Prosperity.
