KO Da Seul is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Jeju National University. She received her M.A. in Political Science from the same institution with a thesis on the city diplomacy of local governments. She is currently conducting comparative research on the structural characteristics and strategic agency of island-state networks with support from the Next-Generation Academic Fellowship Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea. She also serves as a Special Researcher at the Institute of Peace Studies and the Research Institute for the Tamla Culture at Jeju National University.