Dr. Minseon Ku 구민선 具旼宣

Hello! I'm a postdoctoral fellow with the Diplomacy Project at the Global Research Institute and a faculty affiliate at William & Mary, and a member of the 2024 cohort in the NCAFP’s Korea Peninsula Emerging Leaders Program.

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My book project, The Power of Performance: Summit Diplomacy in World Politics, which has been selected for the Scholar's Circle at 2024 ISA Northeast Baltimore, develops a theoretical approach to understanding the function of summitry in world politics by foregrounding the performance and audience dimensions. I argue that summitry is a performance generating ritualistic effects that enable states to manage relations among leaders, among states, and between states and laypeople. Using an original dataset of bilateral summits, survey experiments and focus group study, I illustrate that the ritual-like effects of summitry allow for a reimagination of world politics. 

 

My research related to summitry has been published in International Organization and the Hague Journal of Diplomacy. My other research interests include the intersection of IR theory and diplomacy, ontological (in)security in public opinion, the international politics of reconciliation and remembrance, US and South Korean foreign policy, and Northeast Asia regional dynamics. I have contributed policy commentaries on summit diplomacy, inter-Korea affairs, US-North Korea nuclear diplomacy, and South Korea's foreign policy and diplomacy. 

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Previously, I was the Spencer fellow in US Foreign Policy and International Security at the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth. I received my PhD in Political Science from The Ohio State University in December 2023, and Master's and BA degrees from Yonsei University in Seoul. Prior to my doctoral training, I was a research assistant at the National Assembly Budget Office in Seoul, South Korea, and a Korea Foundation junior resident fellow at the CSIS Office of the Korea Chair in Washington, D.C.