Ellen Kim

Dr. Ellen Kim is a deputy director of the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where she is also a senior fellow. Her research focuses on U.S.-Korea relations, North Korea, and countries’ response to U.S.-China strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific. She joined the Korea Chair upon its inception in 2009 and previously served as associate director and fellow before her departure in 2015. Her recent publications include North Korea without Change (with Victor Cha in The International Relations of Asia, edited by David Shambaugh, Rowman & Littlefield, 2022) and Between a Rock and a Hard Place: South Korea’s Strategic Dilemmas with China and the United States (with Victor Cha, Asia Policy, 2016). She holds a B.A. in international relations and Japanese studies from Wellesley College, an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a Ph.D. in political science and international relations from the University of Southern California. Her Ph.D. dissertation examined U.S. allies’ divergent alignment behavior in the context of the U.S.-China competition in the Indo-Pacific.