Dr. BAN Kil Joo is an assistant professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy. He worked as the project manager of the International Organizations Center and was a professor in charge of OGA (OnDream Global Academy) at IIRI, Korea University. He also worked as the Director of the Center for Security Studies, ICIS, Inha University. In a previous government position (2022-2023), he served as an Assistant Secretary to the ROK President for foreign affairs. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science, majoring in international relations from Arizona State University. His research areas are international security, the New Cold War, the U.S.-China competition, alliance, North Korea’s nuclear program, diplomatic strategy, military security, and maritime security. Recently in 2020-2025 alone, he has written 60 academic papers, including 7 SSCI-indexed, 7 SCOPUS-indexed, and 43 KCI-indexed ones, including a paper to be published.