This interview is part of a series of interviews with academics and practitioners at an early stage of their career. The interviews discuss current research and projects, as well as advice for other early career scholars.

Jaehan Park is an Assistant Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and a Non-Resident Fellow with the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. His research interests include international relations theory, East Asian security, and U.S. foreign policy. Previously, Park held fellowships at the Albritton Center for Grand Strategy at Texas A&M University, the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Notre Dame International Security Center, among others. He was also a David Rockefeller Fellow with the Trilateral Commission from 2020 to 2023 and consulted with various organizations in both the U.S. and South Korea, including the Office of Net Assessment.

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What (or who) prompted the most significant shifts in your thinking or encouraged you to pursue your area of research?

The first and foremost was my military service. I always thought I would become a businessman. During my time in the army, however, I had the opportunity to travel to different places assisting senior military leaders. The world I saw in that capacity was very different from the world I had known. In particular, I was shocked by the fact that the concept of market which I had thought universal was in fact an “institution” standing on a very fragile premise of external and internal security. In many places around the world, this was and still is not a given.

So, I decided to change my career. I had the good fortune of being admitted to the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) where I spent the next decade – first as a graduate student and later as a lecturer. Being at the heart of Washington D.C., SAIS offers an exceptional educational experience on international affairs. I immersed myself in various theoretical and historical writings. I also learned how to think and write about policy issues. Most importantly, I met wonderful teachers and colleagues who profoundly shaped my thinking on international affairs. To them, I owe everything.

As for the intellectual influence, I would say two authors really stand out: Thucydides and Nicholas Spykman. At the risk of sounding cliché, Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War is one of the deepest and richest books on international affairs dealing with some of the most important questions in politics – perhaps due to his own personal experience as an unsuccessful general of Athens – such as human nature, good governance, and war and peace. It is also a profoundly misunderstood text. Many only quote certain parts, but omit the master’s narration of the complex interplay between human passions and broader structural forces or what followed the infamous Melian Dialogue. Some might think a 2,000-year old book might not have much to offer for our times. If you think so, think again: Thucydides wrote about the impact of what we now believe was bubonic plague – especially how it was psychological effects, more so than the mortality of the disease itself, that really put a heavy toll on the Athenian........

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