Professor In Namsik works at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, Korea National Diplomatic Academy, as the Director-General for the Department of American Studies. His academic expertise is in various Middle Eastern and Islamic issues and US foreign policy towards the Middle East. He served various governmental institutions in Korea as a member of the policy advisory boards, including the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has been actively engaged in several academic associations, such as the Korean Association of International Studies, the Korean Association of Middle East Studies, and the Korean Association of Islamic Studies as a board member. Professor In went to Yonsei University (Seoul, Korea) for his BA and MA degrees in political science and received his Ph.D. in Middle East politics at Durham University, UK. His latest article “US and Russia‘s Foreign Policy towards the Middle East: Divergence in Geopolitical Approaches“ (in Korean) appears in a recent issue of Korea and World Politics in March 2016.