Jong-Chun Baek is the Chairman of the Sejong Institute. He served as the National Security Advisor to the President (ministerial level) from 2006 to 2008 and the chairman of standing committee of the National Security Council (NSC) from 2007 to 2008 under President Roh Moo Hyun. Prior to that, he was a member of the National Defense Development Advisory Committee directly responsible to the President from 2005 to 2006. He also served as the chairman of the National Unification Policy Review Committee under the Ministry of National Unification from 2001 to 2003. He was the president of the Korean Association for International Studies in 2001.

Prior to joining the government, Baek taught security and defense affairs at the Korea Military Academy and served as Dean of professors (Brigadier General) from 1993 to 1994. After being retired, he joined the Sejong Institute as a senior research fellow and served as the instiute’s president from 2000 to 2006.

He is a graduate of the Korea Military Academy, and received B.A. and M.A. degrees in political science from Seoul National University. He earned his Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1980.