Katharine H.S. Moon
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for East Asia Policy Studies
Katharine (Kathy) H.S. Moon is nonresident senior fellow and the inaugural holder of the SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at The Brookings Institution. She also is a professor of Political Science and Wasserman Chair of Asian Studies at Wellesley College. She received her bachelor's magna cum laude from Smith College and a doctorate from Princeton University in the Department of Politics. She was born in San Francisco.
Kathy Moon’s analytical approach is to bridge domestic politics and foreign policy. Moon is the author of "Protesting America: Democracy and the U.S.-Korea Alliance," which illustrates 1) how democracy has given rise to Korean civil society activism relating to the U.S.-Korea alliance; 2) the comparative politics of U.S. overseas basing; and 3) the institutional and procedural changes needed to improve the management of the alliance. Kathy Moon also authored "Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations," which explains how foreign policy decisions affect local communities and the lives of poor and marginalized women. Moon’s research encompasses the U.S.-Korea alliance, East Asian politics, inter-Korean relations, socio-political changes in North Korea, and the role of Korean-Americans in U.S. foreign policy. She also studies democratization, nationalisms, women and gender politics, migration and identity, and comparative social movements in East Asia, including human rights. Her publications include:
“Influencing South Korea's Democracy: China, North Korea, and Defectors”
“Challenging U.S. Hegemony: Asian Nationalism and Anti-Americanism in East Asia”
“Beyond Demonization: A New Strategy for Human Rights in North Korea”
“Resurrecting Prostitutes and Overturning Treaties: Gender Politics in the South Korean ‘Anti-American’ Movement”
“Ethnicity and U.S. Foreign Policy: Korean Americans”
Moon is currently working on a book that analyzes the impact of demographic change in South Korea on Korean democracy and foreign policy. She is also editing a volume on Korean-Americans as new actors in American politics and in U.S.-Korea relations.
Research support from organizations such as the Henry Luce Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, The George Washington University, The Fulbright Program, the American Association of University Women, the National Bureau of Asian Research, and the Social Science Research Council have facilitated Moon’s research. Moon also served in the Office of the Senior Coordinator for International Women’s Issues in the U.S. Department of State and as a trustee of Smith College.
Affiliations:
Korea Working Group, Harvard Kennedy School
Asia Society, New York, associate fellow
The National Committee on North Korea, Steering Committee member
Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights, Advisory Board
Katharine (Kathy) H.S. Moon is nonresident senior fellow and the inaugural holder of the SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at The Brookings Institution. She also is a professor of Political Science and Wasserman Chair of Asian Studies at Wellesley College. She received her bachelor’s magna cum laude from Smith College and a doctorate from Princeton University in the Department of Politics. She was born in San Francisco.
Kathy Moon’s analytical approach is to bridge domestic politics and foreign policy. Moon is the author of “Protesting America: Democracy and the U.S.-Korea Alliance,” which illustrates 1) how democracy has given rise to Korean civil society activism relating to the U.S.-Korea alliance; 2) the comparative politics of U.S. overseas basing; and 3) the institutional and procedural changes needed to improve the management of the alliance. Kathy Moon also authored “Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations,” which explains how foreign policy decisions affect local communities and the lives of poor and marginalized women. Moon’s research encompasses the U.S.-Korea alliance, East Asian politics, inter-Korean relations, socio-political changes in North Korea, and the role of Korean-Americans in U.S. foreign policy. She also studies democratization, nationalisms, women and gender politics, migration and identity, and comparative social movements in East Asia, including human rights. Her publications include:
“Influencing South Korea’s Democracy: China, North Korea, and Defectors”
“Challenging U.S. Hegemony: Asian Nationalism and Anti-Americanism in East Asia”
“Beyond Demonization: A New Strategy for Human Rights in North Korea”
“Resurrecting Prostitutes and Overturning Treaties: Gender Politics in the South Korean ‘Anti-American’ Movement”
“Ethnicity and U.S. Foreign Policy: Korean Americans”
Moon is currently working on a book that analyzes the impact of demographic change in South Korea on Korean democracy and foreign policy. She is also editing a volume on Korean-Americans as new actors in American politics and in U.S.-Korea relations.
Research support from organizations such as the Henry Luce Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, The George Washington University, The Fulbright Program, the American Association of University Women, the National Bureau of Asian Research, and the Social Science Research Council have facilitated Moon’s research. Moon also served in the Office of the Senior Coordinator for International Women’s Issues in the U.S. Department of State and as a trustee of Smith College.
Affiliations:
Korea Working Group, Harvard Kennedy School
Asia Society, New York, associate fellow
The National Committee on North Korea, Steering Committee member
Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights, Advisory Board
I think the thing that's most dangerous about the upcoming [U.S.-North Korea] summit is that people might expect things to happen too fast. This is Mr. Trump's weakness. He likes to go big, but this... will be pretty painstaking and will require years, not months. There is a lot of fear that Trump might be too excited by [about the prospect of a Nobel Peace Prize] and reaches out for peace treaties before actual verified commitments to denuclearization are in place...and so basically, a peace agreement should be the last reward, not something you give away.
There's a lot more pressure on the U.S. than on North Korea to do well in this summit because the U.S. has become the world's worst diplomat. The Trump administration has pulled the U.S. out of so many important agreements that were aimed at cooperation and peace...There are concerns that Trump may go for what is most threatening to the U.S., the ICBM capacity of North Korea, rather than the much larger arsenal of short-range and mid-range missiles that would target Japan, South Korea, and the regional partners in Asia.
[A quarter of all sex crimes in South Korea reported in 2015 involved spycams, which] is a really large increase when you compare it to in 2006, when about 3.6 percent of the total number of sex crimes reported involved spycams...[A spy cam scheme may be a] more passive rather than aggressive way [for South Korean men] to act out their masculine insecurities and their social economic discontent on women. There are a lot of men in Korea, especially in the younger generations, who blame women for some of the problems that they face. There’s a sense of rejection by women and also being bested by women in schools and in jobs. In some ways, [this] is an easy way for your average guy to feel like there’s some kind of payback.
If Trump and his group hoped that this kind of tough talk would make the North Koreans nervous, and make them come back with their tail between their legs — no, that’s just not the way they work. This is a stupid move. By pushing North Korea away, in such an in-your-face way, he’s pushing them to work separately with the South Koreans and the Chinese.
Timing the pull-out to the exact moment North Korea was publicly doing Trump a favor looked like an intentional burn. This was a slap in the face against Kim [Jong-un].
