I am a Professor at Seoul National University's Graduate School of Public Administration. My teaching and research interests lie at the intersection of East Asian and Korean studies with a focus on the region's fluid geo-economic landscape and volatile geo-political seascape. 

I am the author of The Political Economy and Law of International Trade: Between Free Trade Ideals and Mercantilist Bias (2021, Parkyoungsa, in Korean) and Island Disputes and Maritime Regime Building in East Asia: Between a Rock and a Hard Place (2010, Springer) and the co-author of The Korean Government and Public Policies in a Development Nexus: Sustaining Development and Tackling Policy Changes – Volume 2 (edited with Jongwon Choi and Huck-ju Kwon, 2017, Springer), The Korean Government and Public Policies in a Development Nexus – Volume 1 (edited with Huck-ju Kwon, 2013, Springer), and Asia’s New Institutional Architecture: Evolving Structures for Managing Trade, Financial, and Security Relations (edited with Vinod K. Aggarwal, 2008, Springer). 

Aside from many book chapters, my research has been published in prestigious journals, including Ocean Development & International Law, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, The Pacific Review, Pacific Affairs, Asian Perspective, European Journal of East Asia Studies, Journal of East Asian Studies, Business and Politics, and Journal of International and Area Studies.

Before joining SNU, I held positions as a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for International Studies and as a full-time lecturer in the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California from fall 2005 to spring 2007. I also taught at Yonsei University in South Korea from fall 2007 to spring 2010. Additionally, I served as a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute during 2015-2016 and  as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at UC Irvine's Korea Law Center during 2023. 

My administrative roles at SNU included Associate Dean and Dean of International Affairs from 2016 to 2020, and Dean of Student Affairs in 2021. 

I hold a BA in Political Science/International Relations and an MA in Public Policy from SNU and an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. I earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 2005. You can reach me at mgkoo@snu.ac.kr.