Building on the second image reversed logic, my research focuses on how two features of the international environment — the distribution of threats and the distribution of ideas — shape political behavior, from mass opinion to authoritarian regime decisions and patterns of international alignment.
How does exposure to international conflict and security competition shape public attitudes toward foreign affairs and civil-military relations?
"How Mandatory Military Service can Divide rather than Unite: Conscription, Gender, and Military Trust in South Korea 2003-2021," (with YuJung Julia Lee), Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 51, No. 3, 2024.
"Conscription and Gender in Mass Opinion on Foreign Affairs," (with YuJung Julia Lee), Journal of Global Security Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2024.
"Gender, Events, and Elite Messages in Mass Opinion on Foreign Relations," (with YuJung Julia Lee), Journal of Global Security Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2021.
"Limits of Engagement? The Sunshine Policy, Nuclear Tests, and South Korean Views of North Korea 1995-2015," International Relations of the Asia Pacific, Vol 20, No. 3, 2020.
How does the distribution of external threats shape state and regime behavior?
"External Threats and Democratization: Burma 1988 and South Korea 1987," Review of International Studies, forthcoming
"Impossible Allies? Korean Views of Japan in a Changing World Order," Journal of Asian and African Studies, Vol. 56, No. 6, 2021. Data Replication
"International Conflict and Violent Authoritarian Breakdown," International Interactions, Vol. 45, No. 5, 2019.
"The North Korean Regime, Domestic Instability, and International Conflict," North Korean Review, Vol. 14, No.1, 2018.
How do norms and competing narratives shape political behavior—and when do they fail to do so?
"Paying It Forward: Generalized Reciprocity in Mass Opinion on Foreign Aid ," (with Changkeun Lee), Public Opinion Quarterly, forthcoming.
"Democratic Ties that Bind? US-China Conflict and Foreign Policy Opinion in Asian Democracies,",(with Sijeong Lim), International Studies Perspectives, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2025.
"Human Rights vs Security in South Korean views of North Korea," (with YuJung Julia Lee), Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol. 37, No. 5. 2024.
Working Papers
"External Threats and Democratization from Military Rule," revise and resubmit
"International Conflict and Authoritarian Stability"
"Favored (Only) Son? - Declining Birthrates, Conscription, and Mass Opinion on Foreign Affairs" (with Julia YuJung Lee)
"Military Trust under Conventional and Nuclear Threats"
"Strategic Ambiguity, Credibility, and Nuclear Escalation during the Taiwan Straits Crises"
"Nuclear Status, Status Substitution, and Mass Support for Nuclear Weapons"
"From Reciprocity to Transmission: Beyond Quid Pro Quo"
"Realism in Expectation: A Reassessment of the Critique of U.S.-China Policy during the 1950s"
"The Antinomies of Soft Power: American Attraction and Mass Demand for the Bomb in South Korea "
Other Publications
Review of Victor D. Cha, The Black Box: Demystifying the Study of Korean Unification and North Korea (Columbia University Press, 2024), Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 2026.
"Preventing a Post-Collapse Crisis in North Korea - How to Avoid Famine and Mass Migration," (with Andrew Natsios), Foreign Affairs, January 2018.
"Sino-American Cooperation and the North Korean Nuclear Crisis: A Reassessment," Scowcroft Policy Paper Series, No. 11, November 2017.