Portrait of Victor Cha

Victor Cha, Ph.D.

  • Koret Fellow, 2019-20
  • Visiting Scholar at APARC, Winter 2020
Shorenstein APARCStanford UniversityEncina Hall E301Stanford, CA 94305-6055

Biography

Victor Cha, professor of government and international affairs at Georgetown University, joined the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the Korea Program as the Koret Fellow for the winter quarter of 2020. He is the author of five books, including The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future (Harper Collins, 2012) and Powerplay: Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia (Princeton University Press, 2016). He holds Georgetown's Dean's Award for teaching for 2010, the Distinguished Research Award for 2011, and a Distinguished Principal Investigator Award for 2016.

Professor Cha left the White House in 2007 after serving since 2004 as Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, where he was responsible for Japan, the Korean peninsula, Australia/New Zealand, and Pacific Island affairs. He serves as Senior Advisor at CSIS, and is a non-resident Fellow in Human Freedom at the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas, Texas. He received a Ph.D. from Columbia University, M.A. from the University of Oxford, and MIA and B.A. from Columbia University.