Young C. Kim

In Memorium by David Shambaugh

"The George Washington University, the Elliott School of International Affairs, and the Department of Political Science recently lost one of its longest-serving faculty members. Dr. Young C. Kim served with dedication and distinction on the GW faculty from 1970- 2000. He taught many courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, while training a considerable number of PhD students in Political Science. He was a senior faculty member of GW’s Institute of Sino-Soviet Studies (ISS) and served as the inaugural Director of the Sigur Center (when it morphed out of the ISS) until his retirement in 1996. Professor Kim was instrumental in forging strong institutional ties between GW and Keio University in Tokyo, and he been a visiting scholar at Keio, Seoul National University, and other institutions in Japan, South and North Korea. He had also been a visiting scholar at both the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 

Dr. Kim’s own research was wide-ranging—but he specialized in both the domestic politics and foreign relations of Japan and South Korea. He worked hard as an entrepreneurial academic to bridge the historical divides between South Korea and Japan, between North and South Korea, and between North Korea and the United States (from 1986-1996 he served as director of a US-DPRK. academic and cultural exchange program). He also studied the international relations of East Asia, Soviet and Russian policy in Asia, and US relations with its East Asian allies. During his distinguished career, Dr. Kim published ten books and monographs, and about seventy articles in leading academic journals such as World Politics, The Journal of Politics, the American Political Science Review, Asian Affairs, and Asian Survey. He was also an active contributor of over 100 “op-ed” articles to newspapers in the United States, Japan, and South Korea. 

Young C. Kim received his MA from Vanderbilt University in 1956 and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1958. Prior to joining the GW faculty, he taught at Hobart and William Smith College, Boston College, and Vanderbilt University. He also taught occasional courses at Johns Hopkins SAIS and the US Defense Intelligence College and lectured at universities such as Columbia and Georgetown Universities. Young C. Kim will be remembered for his decades of service to the George Washington University, and by his former colleagues and students."

Read more from the Sigur Center of Asian Studies's Asian Connections: 2024 Edition here.