A finance professional and business consultant, James Jongsoo Lee is a scholar and expert in national security, foreign policy, and Indo-Pacific, Eurasian and global affairs. Trained as a historian and a political economist, James is passionate about contributing creative policy solutions to challenges facing the world. He is a Partner at Brock Group, a boutique investment bank and business advisory firm, and is also Adjunct Fellow at the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum and Contributing Editor at The Diplomat.
James served as Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Asia Quarterly and held research appointments at Harvard's Korea Institute and Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Author of The Partition of Korea After World War II: A Global History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) and other published works, James served as Senior Research Fellow at Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, where he coordinated Track II policy dialogues on nuclear and regional security issues co-organized with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (Washington, D.C.) and the Japan Institute of International Affairs (Tokyo). A contributor to Journal of Cold War Studies (MIT Press), James leads the National Security SIG at Harvard Club of New York. His writings have been published by outlets including Financial Times, Newsweek, The National Interest, The Korea Herald, The Straits Times, Council on Foreign Relations, Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
James is a graduate of Phillips Academy (Andover), Williams College (B.A.) and Harvard University (M.A., Ph.D.). He also studied at Beijing University, Moscow State University, and International Christian University (Tokyo). His current research project is titled Nuclear Power, Economy, and Human Rights: Russia, China and North Korea.