I am a political economist working on the geoeconomics of conflict in the digital economy, observing East Asia, the U.S., Europe and the Gulf. I focus on trade, energy and tech conflicts among nation states as they navigate their distinctive paths into the digital future.

My grand theme of research is why countries fight and how, using what. I study why countries have different policy outcomes by analyzing governance structures – domestic institutions, leaderships, and bureaucracies that shape the policy formation process.

CV 

I am an inaugural Asia Fellow of the International Strategy Forum at Schmidt Futures. I am currently working on my book manuscript while serving as a visiting research fellow at the Institute for Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. Concurrently, I am a Nonresident Fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research in Washington, DC. From the second half of 2022, I will serve from remote as a non-resident principal investigator of the emerging technology component of the Small States Research Program at Georgetown University in Qatar in Doha, Qatar.

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 continue to be engaged with the Fung Global Fellows Program.

In the 2022-2023 academic year, 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 differing levels of balance amongst the three entities – state-bureaucracy-industry – 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. Academic Book Publication Program at the Research Information Service of the National Library of Korea, where I also serve as member of the foreign reserves acquisition recommendation committee.

Outside academia, I advise public and private sectors with analyses at global, regional, and domestic levels. I also advise and consult for governments, the policy think-tanks, and businesses, most recently having served as a consultant on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) for the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs; as a member of the Democracy in Asia Project of the Brookings Institution; and as a consultant for EY Japan on the implementation of legislations regarding artificial intelligence (AI). I engage actively with media by providing expert commentary to various international media outlets and contribute my analysis to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research and analysis division of Economist Group. I also serve as an expert for global consulting firms Duco Experts and Enquire.AI.

Track Record 
Social Media  
BookTube INSIDE TRADE WARS   
Consulting  
Contributions 
June Park OpenScholar page hosted by Princeton University 
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