Kathryn Botto was a senior research analyst in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research focuses on Asian security issues, with particular emphasis on the Korean Peninsula and U.S. defense policy towards East Asia. Botto’s research interests also include alliance management, defense policymaking in select Asian nations, and trilateral cooperation between the United States, South Korea, and Japan.
Before joining Carnegie in July 2018, Botto was a research associate in the Strategy Division of the U.S. Forces Korea, Combined Forces Command, and United Nations Command. Previously, she was a research fellow at the Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies.
Botto was awarded a Fulbright grant and completed her MA in Global Affairs and Policy at the Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei University, in South Korea. She received her BA in Sociology, East Asian Studies, and International Studies from Johns Hopkins University.
Though Moon’s efforts toward securing inter-Korean peace have received the most publicity, the New Southern Policy to advance ties with India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has arguably sustained more momentum than any of the administration’s other flagship foreign policy initiatives.
Wongi Choe, Chiew-Ping Hoo, Jagannath Panda, Andrew Yeo, and Kathryn Botto discuss South Korea’s relationship with Southeast Asia and India.
Under President Moon Jae-in, South Korea has pursued closer ties with Southeast Asia and India through the New Southern Policy. How do Seoul’s priorities in the region converge with those of other actors?
South Korea is bracing for a momentous demographic shift that could be a bellwether of how other countries around the world will deal with aging populations in the decades to come.
Kang’s role as the first woman to serve as foreign minister in the country marks a period of progress for South Korean women in public service.
The coronavirus has devastated fragile and conflict-affected states, exacerbating suffering and, in some cases, shifting power dynamics in ways that are likely to influence politics or the conflicts even when the pandemic subsides.
South Korea’s soft power reached new heights in 2020, driven by everything from its model pandemic response to cultural staples like chart-topping BTS albums. But Seoul must use this rising political capital wisely to build lasting influence beyond its borders.
Improving relations with Seoul will require a proactive effort to settle recent disputes, and separate complex historical issues from economic and security cooperation.
How do you make sure that the military is prepared to tackle threats during a pandemic? The U.S.–South Korean alliance has been wrestling with the problem.
It is impossible to divorce the U.S.-South Korean alliance and inter-Korean issues, or to separate them from the overall context of international relations not only in Northeast Asia, but also in the global arena.
