Professor Victor D. Cha is Distinguished University Professor, D.S. Song-KF Chairholder, and Professor of  Government in the Department of Government and School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.  He is also Senior Vice President for Asia and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International  Studies in Washington, D.C. He is the author of seven books, including the award-winning Alignment  Despite Antagonism: The United States-Korea-Japan Security Triangle (Stanford University Press, 1999)  (winner of the 2000 Ohira Book Prize), and The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future (Harper  Collins Ecco, 2012 selected by Foreign Affairs as a “Best Book on the Asia-Pacific for 2012.” His most  recent book is Korea: A New History of South and North (Yale University Press, 2023) with Ramon  Pacheco Pardo. His other books are Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sport in Asia (Columbia  University Press, 2009); Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies (Columbia University  Press, 2003) with David Kang; and Powerplay: The Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia (Princeton University Press, 2016). His forthcoming book is The Black Box: Methods and Data in the Study  of Korean Unification and North Korea (Columbia University Press, 2024). His articles on international  relations and Asian affairs have appeared in numerous journals including International Security, Political  Science Quarterly, International Studies Quarterly, Armed Forces and Society, Foreign Affairs, Asian  Survey, Journal of Asian Studies, International Journal of the History of Sport, and Journal of Strategic  Studies. 

He was appointed in 2021 by Joseph R. Biden administration to serve on the Defense Policy Board in an  advisory role to the Secretary of Defense. He formerly served on the White House National Security  Council where he was responsible primarily for Japan, the Korean peninsula, Australia/New Zealand and  Pacific Island nation affairs. Dr. Cha was also the Deputy Head of Delegation for the United States at the  Six Party Talks in Beijing, and received two Outstanding Service commendations during his tenure at the  NSC.  

Dr. Cha is a two-time Fulbright Scholar, former Olin Fellow at Harvard University, and former Hoover,  CISAC, and Koret Fellow at Stanford University. He currently serves on ten editorial boards of academic  journals and is co-editor of the Contemporary Asia Book Series at Columbia University Press. In 2022, he  was elected to serve on the Board for the National Endowment for Democracy, and he remains a Senior  Fellow in Human Freedom (non-resident) at the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas, Texas. He is a  Foreign Affairs Contributor for MSNBC and NBC News. Dr. Cha has appeared in a variety of media  including ESPN, The Colbert Report, and a cameo role (as himself) in the 2012 film Red Dawn. He co hosts The Impossible State podcast and The Capital Cable YouTube show. 

In 2023, he was named Distinguished University Professor, the highest honor bestowed upon a tenured  faculty member at Georgetown. He is the recipient of the 2023 Hubert H. Humphrey award from the  American Political Science Association for notable public service by a political scientist and the 2023  Joseph Kurzel Memorial Prize for excellence in scholarship and public service (also from APSA). 

Dr. Cha received his Ph.D. in political science at Columbia University, MIA from Columbia, B.A. Honors  in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University, and A.B. in Economics from Columbia. He was born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Ramon Pacheco Pardo is Professor of International Relations at King’s College London and the KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Brussels School of Governance of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is also King's Regional Envoy for East and South East Asia, helping to shape and implement the university's strategy for the region.

Prof Pacheco Pardo is also Adjunct Fellow (Non-Resident) with the Korea Chair at CSIS, Scientific Council Member at Elcano Royal Institute and Committee Member at CSCAP EU. He has held visiting positions at Korea University, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Melbourne University.

His publications include the books Korea: A New History of South & North (Yale University Press, 2023; with Victor Cha), South Korea's Grand Strategy: Making Its Own Destiny (Columbia University Press, 2023), Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop (Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2022) and North Korea-US Relations from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un (Routledge, 2019). Prof Pacheco Pardo has been editor of Millennium: Journal of International Studies and currently sits in the editorial boards of East Asia: An International Quarterly and Korea-Europe Review.

He has participated in track 1.5 and 2 dialogues with South Korea, North Korea, China, Japan and the United States. Prof Pacheco Pardo has testified before the European Parliament and consulted and advised NATO, the OECD and the governments of Canada, the EU, South Korea, Spain, the UK and the United States, among others. He is a frequent media commentator on North East Asian affairs and EU-East Asia relations.