Victor Cha

President, Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department and Korea Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

Victor Cha is President of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is also a distinguished university professor and professor of government at Georgetown University. In 2021, Dr. Cha was appointed by the Biden administration to serve on the Defense Policy Board in an advisory role to the secretary of defense. From 2004 to 2007, he served on the National Security Council (NSC), where he was responsible for Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Island nations. He was the U.S. deputy head of delegation at the Six Party Talks and received two Outstanding Service Commendations during his tenure at the NSC.

Dr. Cha is the author of nine books, including the award-winning Alignment Despite Antagonism: The United States–Korea–Japan Security Triangle (Stanford University Press, 1999), which won the 2000 Ohira Book Prize; The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future (Ecco, 2012), selected by Foreign Affairs as a “Best Book on the Asia-Pacific for 2012”; Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies (Columbia University Press, 2003); Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sport in Asia (Columbia University Press, 2009); Powerplay: Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia (Princeton University Press, 2018); Korea: A New History of South and North (Yale University Press, 2023); The Black Box: Demystifying the Study of Korean Unification and North Korea (Columbia University Press, 2024); North Korea’s Sea-Based WMD Capability (Bloomsbury, 2025); and China’s Weaponization of Trade: Resistance Through Collective Resilience (Columbia University Press, 2026).

Dr. Cha is a two-time Fulbright scholar and a former Olin Fellow at Harvard University, as well as a former Hoover, Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), and Koret fellow at Stanford University. He currently serves on the editorial boards of 10 academic journals and is co-editor of the Contemporary Asia book series at Columbia University Press. He serves on the board of the National Endowment for Democracy and is a senior fellow at the George W. Bush Institute. Dr. Cha received his PhD, MIA, and BA from Columbia University and a BA with honours from Oxford University.