People

Dr. Victor Cha is a Senior Advisor to Teneo.

In addition to his role at Teneo, Dr. Cha (Ph.D. Columbia, M.A. Oxford, B.A. Columbia) holds the D.S. Song-KF Chaired Professorship in Government and International Affairs at Georgetown University, where he is also Director of the National Resource Center for Asian Studies in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. In 2009, he was named as Senior Adviser for Asia and the inaugural holder of the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Cha left the White House in May 2007 after serving since 2004 as Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council. 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 award-winning author of: Alignment Despite Antagonism: The United States-Korea-Japan Security Triangle (Stanford University Press) (winner of the 2000 Ohira Book Prize); Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies (Columbia University Press, 2004 with Dave Kang); Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sport in Asia (Columbia, 2009); and the critically acclaimed, The Impossible State (Ecco, 2012). His next book is Powerplay: Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia (Princeton). He is also currently co-authoring, with D. Kang, Korea After Unification: Planning for the Inevitable (Columbia, with L. Easley). He has written articles on international relations and East Asia in journals including: Foreign Affairs, International Security, Political Science Quarterly, Survival, International Studies Quarterly, and Asian Survey. Dr. Cha is a former John M. Olin National Security Fellow at Harvard University; two-time Fulbright Scholar; Hoover National Fellow; CISAC Fellow; and William J. Perry Fellow at Stanford University. He holds Georgetown’s Dean’s Teaching Award for 2010 and the Distinguished Research Award for 2011.

He serves as an independent consultant, and has testified before Congress on Asian security issues. He has been a guest analyst for various media including: CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, The Colbert Report, Fox News, PBS, MSNBC, CNBC, BBC, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and National Public Radio. He has a cameo role (as himself) in the film “Red Dawn” (Contrafilm, MGM, Vincent Newman Entertainment), released in November 2012.

His newest book, The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future (released April 2012 by HarperCollins Ecco), is one of the first books that looks at North Korea after the death of Kim Jong-il. It was selected by Foreign Affairs magazine as a 2012 “Best Book on Asia and the Pacific.”