David Straub

david straub cropped

David Straub

  • Associate Director of the Korea Program

No longer in residence.

Biography

David Straub was named associate director of the Korea Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) on July 1, 2008. Prior to that he was a 2007–08 Pantech Fellow at the Center. Straub is the author of the book, Anti-Americanism in Democratizing South Korea, published in 2015.

An educator and commentator on current Northeast Asian affairs, Straub retired in 2006 from his role as a U.S. Department of State senior foreign service officer after a 30-year career focused on Northeast Asian affairs. He worked over 12 years on Korean affairs, first arriving in Seoul in 1979.

Straub served as head of the political section at the U.S. embassy in Seoul from 1999 to 2002 during popular protests against the United States, and he played a key working-level role in the Six-Party Talks on North Korea's nuclear program as the State Department's Korea country desk director from 2002 to 2004. He also served eight years at the U.S. embassy in Japan. His final assignment was as the State Department's Japan country desk director from 2004 to 2006, when he was co-leader of the U.S. delegation to talks with Japan on the realignment of the U.S.-Japan alliance and of U.S. military bases in Japan.

After leaving the Department of State, Straub taught U.S.-Korean relations at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in the fall of 2006 and at the Graduate School of International Studies of Seoul National University in spring 2007. He has published a number of papers on U.S.-Korean relations. His foreign languages are Korean, Japanese, and German.

publications

Books
July 2015

Anti-Americanism in Democratizing South Korea

Author(s)
cover link Anti-Americanism in Democratizing South Korea
Books
December 2013

Troubled Transition: North Korea's Politics, Economy and External Relations

Author(s)
cover link Troubled Transition: North Korea's Politics, Economy and External Relations
Books
December 2011

Beyond North Korea: Future Challenges to South Korea's Security

Author(s)
cover link Beyond North Korea: Future Challenges to South Korea's Security

In The News

Kim&Jang Photo
Commentary

Elimination of Jang Song-taek contradicts usual narrative in North Korea

cover link Elimination of Jang Song-taek contradicts usual narrative in North Korea
Commentary

North Korea: extreme but not crazy

cover link North Korea: extreme but not crazy