Dr. Patrick McEachern is a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow and Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. He is co-author of North Korea, Iran, and the Challenge to International Order (Routledge, 2017) and author of Inside the Red Box: North Korea’s Post-totalitarian Politics (Columbia University Press, 2010). He is currently working on a new co-authored book entitled Survivor: North Korea from Kim Il Sung to Kim Jong Un. His other publications on North Korea can be found in the Asian Journal of Comparative Politics, Global Asia, Journal of East Asian Studies, Asian Survey, Asian Perspective, NAPSNet, Korea Yearbook, and elsewhere.
He has been a U.S. diplomat since 2002 and is currently on a one-year leave of absence from the State Department. He served as the Deputy Chief of Foreign Policy and Bilateral Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo (2014-17); North Korea Watcher at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul (2011-2014); Korean language student in Washington, DC and Seoul (2009-2011); North Korea Intelligence Analyst at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (2005-2006, 2008-2009); Pat Roberts Intelligence Fellow (2006-2008); and Consular and Political Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Bratislava, Slovakia (2003-2004). He speaks Korean and Slovak. Patrick received his PhD in Political Science from Louisiana State University.