Victor Cha is the senior vice president for Asia and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS). He joined CSIS in May 2009 as a senior adviser and the inaugural
holder of the Korea Chair. He is professor of government and holds the D.S. Song-KF Chair in
the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service (SFS) at Georgetown
University. In July 2019, he was appointed vice dean for faculty and graduate affairs in SFS. He
left the White House in 2007 after serving since 2004 as director for Asian affairs at the National
Security Council (NSC). At the White House, he was responsible primarily for Japan, the Korean
peninsula, Australia/New Zealand, and Pacific Island nation affairs. Dr. Cha was also the deputy
head of delegation for the United States at the Six-Party Talks in Beijing and received two
outstanding service commendations during his tenure at the NSC. He is the author of five books,
including the award-winning Alignment Despite Antagonism: The United States-Korea-Japan
Security Triangle (Stanford University Press, 1999) (winner of the 2000 Ohira Book Prize)
and The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future (Harper Collins Ecco, 2012), which
was selected by Foreign Affairs as a “Best Book on the Asia-Pacific for 2012.” His newest book
is Powerplay: Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia (Princeton University Press,
2016).
