2021-2022 U.S.-Asia Predoctoral Fellows

Miriam Barnum is a PhD candidate in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California. Her research interests are in international conflict and states’ arming choices, with a particular focus on the relationship between chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons proliferation. She is a doctoral student affiliate of the Security and Political Lab at USC. Before coming to USC, she worked as a research assistant in the National Security Office at Los Alamos National Laboratory and graduated with an AB in Social Studies from Harvard University.

Manseok Lee is an East Asia Security and Nuclear Nonproliferation expert and an active duty army major of the Republic of Korea. Currently, he is pursuing his doctoral degree in public policy at UC Berkeley. His research interests include international relations in East Asia, strategic stability, nuclear nonproliferation regime, North Korea’s nuclear strategy, and US-China relations. Previously, he held an instructor position in war history at the Army College of Korea, worked for the Ministry of National Defense of Korea, and was a research associate at the Center for Global Security Research in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Manseok received masters’ degrees both in Nuclear Engineering and International Studies from UC Berkeley and a BA from the Korea Military Academy. His research has appeared in War on the Rocks, Defense and Security Analysis, Strategic Studies Quarterly, Progress in Nuclear Energy, Berkeley Public Policy Journal, the ROK-US Alliance Journal, and Michigan Journal of Public Affairs.

Na Young Lee is a PhD candidate in the USC Political Science and International Relations (POIR) program. Her research interests lie in international security, history, and the cause of war with a regional focus on East Asia. She is also an academic mentor for the USC Korean Studies Institute’s Undergraduate Fellow (KSI Fellows) Program. She is a graduate of Yonsei University (BA) and Seoul National University (MA).

Caleb Pomeroy is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at The Ohio State University. His research focuses on the psychology of power in international relations, namely the effects of relative (state) power on human cognition, perception, and behavior. His dissertation applies this first image reversed account of international security to threat perception in particular, theorizing and finding that the sense of power increases threat perception, in contrast to established IR wisdom. He has an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford, an MSc in Security Studies from University College London, and a BA in Economics from Boston College.

Pongkwan “PK” Sawasdipakdi is PhD candidate in Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California. She also holds a position as a lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand. Her research focuses on how countries respond to an act of betrayal in international relations. Pongkwan is also interested in Southeast Asia and its interactions with major powers. She has recently published an article on Thailand’s responses to the Belt and Road Initiatives in Asian Perspective. Pongkwan holds a BA in political science from Chulalongkorn University and an MA in Southeast Asia Studies from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Noelle Troutman is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research interests lie in international security—especially East Asia. She specializes in alliance politics, nuclear security, and elite decision-making. Her dissertation considers factors that can influence the propensity of allies to be cohesive, or their ability to agree on security preferences and means of preference implementation. She is also a 2021 New Voices in National Security Research Fellow at the Bridging the Gap Project and Summer 2021 Associate in the National Security Research Division at the RAND Corporation. She received her BA from the University of Northern Iowa and MA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Siu Hei Jackie Wong is a PhD candidate in Political Science and International Relations at USC. His research focuses on the role of narratives in International Security. He is interested in how one state’s security narratives as public information may unveil its strategic position and grand strategy, with an emphasis on the case of US-China relations.