I am a South Korean political economist working on geopolitical risk and the geoeconomics of emerging tech, observing East Asia, the U.S., Europe and the Gulf. I focus on geoeconomic conflicts in digital and green transitions and work on AI governance on frontier AI and risk, export controls on semiconductors (chips), mobility AI (connected cars: EVs and eVTOLs), AI data centers (cloud), 5G/6G networks (cables) as well as digital finance issues concerning crypto, stablecoins and CBDCs (coins). I analyze different country policy responses to the digital transformation and energy transition, by focusing on industrial capacity and governance structures – domestic institutions, leaderships, and bureaucracies that shape the policy formation process.

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I am serving as Senior Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore, after having worked as a Visiting Fellow of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs (ME Council; formerly Brookings Doha Center) to conduct my project, ‘South Korea-GCC Relations: Energy, Technology, Security,’ in Doha, Qatar. I will continue to be affiliated with the ME Council as Non Resident Fellow.

I am an inaugural Asia Fellow of the International Strategy Forum at Schmidt Futures (2022 cohort) and a Nonresident Fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research in Washington, DC. I also contribute my expertise to the experts group at the Center for East Asia Policy Studies of the Brookings Institution. I served as a 2021-2022 Fung Global Fellow (Early-Career Scholar Track) at the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) at Princeton University. At Princeton, I conducted two major projects – one on the weaponization of the semiconductor supply chains in the global chip shortage, and another on the varied levels of country access to vaccines and the governance of vaccine procurement. 

I am focusing on finalizing my first book manuscript, DIGITAL TRADE WARS & CURRENCY CONFLICT: China, South Korea and Japan’s Responses to U.S. Protectionism since COVID-19. The book is currently supported by the International Strategy Forum (ISF) Fellows Individual Impact Grant of Schmidt Futures and has also been enriched by the Next Generation Researcher Grant of the National Research Foundation of Korea. Using a framework of institutional variance in the nexus of industry-state-bureaucracy across jurisdictions, my book manuscript attempts to answer why the three East Asian economies display different policy responses upon encountering U.S. protectionism since the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the cases of semiconductors, EVs and batteries, data governance, and digital currencies. It provides a mechanism for predicting their policy moves in digital transformation. The early phase of the book project been enriched by the Next Generation Researcher Grant of the National Research Foundation of Korea and the Academic Book Publication Program at the Research Information Service of the National Library of Korea, where I also serve as a member of the foreign reserves acquisition recommendation committee.

I advise public and private sectors with analyses at global, regional, and domestic levels. I also advise and consult for governments, think-tanks and the tech industry. I engage actively with media by providing expert commentary to various international media outlets. I serve as an expert for the global consulting firm, Duco Experts.

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