Minseon Ku 

Hello! I'm Assistant Professor at the Grace School of Applied Diplomacy at DePaul University.

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My research interests are in understanding diplomacy as a social practice of states with profound implications for international security. My first book project, The Power of Performance: Summit Diplomacy and World Politics, which was selected for the Scholar's Circle at 2024 ISA Northeast Baltimore, is based on my dissertation and develops a theoretical approach to understanding summit diplomacy as a performance of foreign policy reproducing what I call the "social international," or the international system of states as a social space occupied by states behaving like people with social relations, shaping profoundly the domestic public's beliefs about inter-state relations and the long-term trajectory of foreign policy.

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My research has been published or is forthcoming in European Journal of International Relations, the Hague Journal of Diplomacy, International Organization, International Studies Perspectives, Media, War & Conflict, and Review of International Studies. My other research interests include International Relations Theory, foreign policy and public opinion, and public diplomacy, with a focus on the US and Northeast Asia (China, Japan, and the two Koreas).  

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Previously, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Diplomacy Project at William & Mary Global Research Institute, and the 2023-24 Spencer Fellow in US Foreign Policy and International Security at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth. I earned my MA and PhD in Political Science from The Ohio State University and Master's in Global Affairs and Policy and BA in Political Science & International Relations from Yonsei University in Seoul.