Dr. Sung Chull Kim previously held the position of Humanities Korea Professor until his retirement in 2021. Kim’s primary research interests encompass North Korea, alliance politics, nonproliferation, the nuclear environment, and peace studies. He has authored several recent books, including China and Its Small Neighbors: The Political Economy of Asymmetry, Vulnerability, and Hedging (2023, single-authored), Partnership within Hierarchy: The Evolving East Asian Security Triangle (2017, single-authored), and North Korea and Nuclear Weapons: Entering the New Era of Deterrence (2017, coedited with Michael Cohen). His scholarly articles have been featured in numerous academic journals, such as Systems Research and Behavioral Science (formerly Behavioral Science), Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, and Asian Studies Review. Currently, Kim serves as the editor of the Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, a Scopus-indexed journal specializing in peace studies.