I am currently a postdoctoral researcher for the Patterns of Conflict Emergence (PaCE) project at Trinity College Dublin. I earned my Ph.D. degree in Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh with a focus on International Relations and Research Methods. Prior to this, I completed my MA in International Relations from Peking University in Beijing, China, as well as a double-BA degree in Political Science and Economics from SUNY Stony Brook University and in Public Administration from the University of Seoul.
With a primary interest in international rivalry, foreign policy, and public behaviors in democracy, the motivation of my research is to enhance understanding of the microfoundation of enduring rivalries and their domestic consequences. My personal experiences have driven this academic motivation. While studying in East Asia for twenty years and being from the region, I witnessed firsthand the physical and psychological suffering experienced by individuals in countries such as South Korea, China, and Japan as a result of external threats they frequently faced in their daily lives. I also learned that these distressing encounters often feed aggressive behaviors and attitudes towards the foreign adversary and its populations, thus perpetuating the vicious cycle of international rivalry and distorting their understanding of democratic values and principles.
This observation has continuously whetted my scholarly curiosity in three key substantive research areas: (1) the microfoundation of enduring rivalries, 2) the impact of authoritarian threats on political behaviors in democracy, and 3) the roles of interstate rivalry and democracy in civil war interventions. I employ a multi-method research strategy to generate empirical insights, including quantitative analyses of observational and experimental data and machine-learning approaches to “big data.”
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