Professor Victor D. Cha is a 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 president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, where he is the inaugural holder of the Korea Chair. He 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, and “The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future” (HarperCollins Ecco, 2012), selected by Foreign Affairs as a “Best Book on the Asia-Pacific for 2012.” His most recent books are “China’s Weaponization of Trade: Resisting Through Collective Resilience” (2026, with A. Lim and E. Kim) and “The Black Box: Demystifying Korean Unification and North Korea” (2024), both published by Columbia University Press. His book “Korea: A New History of South and North” (Yale University Press, 2023), co-authored with R. Pardo, has been published in nine languages. His other books include “North Korea’s Sea-Based WMD Capability: Second Leg of the Triad” (Bloomsbury, 2025, with J. Bermudez and E. Kim); “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 D. Kang); and “Powerplay: The Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia” (Princeton University Press, 2016). His articles on international relations and Asian affairs have appeared in numerous journals, including International Security, Political Science Quarterly, International Studies Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, Asian Survey, Journal of Asian Studies, International Journal of the History of Sport, and Journal of Strategic Studies.
From 2021 to 2025, he was appointed by the Joseph R. Biden administration to serve on the Defense Policy Board in an advisory role to the secretary of defense. He previously served on the White House National Security Council for the George W. Bush administration, where he was responsible for Japan, Korea, Australia/New Zealand, and Pacific Island nation affairs (2004–2007). Dr. Cha was also the deputy head of delegation for the United States at the Six-Party Talks in Beijing.
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 10 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 The Korea Society in New York. He remains a senior fellow in human freedom (non-resident) at the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas. Dr. Cha has appeared in a variety of news media, including ESPN, The Colbert Report, and a cameo role (as himself) in the 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. According to ScholarGPS (2025), Dr. Cha is the highest-ranked living political scientist with Korea expertise in the world based on publication record, citation count, and impact (h-index).
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.
