- Pritzker Fellows
- Former Fellows
- Sue Mi Terry
Sue Mi Terry
Former National Security Council Staff Member
Biography
Dr. Sue Mi Terry is Senior Fellow for Korea at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Dr. Terry joined CSIS in 2017 after a distinguished career in intelligence, policymaking, and academia following Korean issues.
Dr. Terry served as a Senior Analyst on Korean issues at the CIA from 2001 to 2008, where she produced hundreds of intelligence assessments – including a record number of contributions to the President’s Daily Brief, the Intelligence Community’s most prestigious product. She received numerous awards for her leadership and outstanding mission support, including the CIA Foreign Language award in 2008.
From 2008 to 2009, Dr. Terry was the Director for Korea, Japan, and Oceanic Affairs at the National Security Council under both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama. In that role, she formulated, coordinated, and implemented U.S. government policy on Korea and Japan, as well as Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania. From 2009 to 2010, she was Deputy National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council. In that position, she led the US. Intelligence community’s production of strategic analysis on East Asian issues and authored multiple National Intelligence Estimates. From 2010 to 2011, Dr. Terry served as the National Intelligence Fellow in the David Rockefeller Studies Program at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Since leaving the government, Dr. Terry has been a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute (2011-2015), where she taught both graduate and undergraduate courses on Korean politics and East Asia, and Senior Adviser for Korea at BowerGroupAsia (2015-2017).
Dr. Terry is also an analyst and commentator for MSNBC and NBC News’ programs and a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and other publications.
She holds a Ph.D. (2001) and a Masters of Arts (1998) in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from New York University (1993). She was born in Seoul and raised in Hawaii and Northern Virginia.
Seminars
“U.S. Intelligence & Policymaking: North Korea & Beyond”
How do we make sense of how America makes its foreign policy at a time of turmoil and transformation? What is and should be America’s role and interest in addressing myriad complex global challenges? This seminar series will explore the major issues in U.S. foreign policymaking with a particular focus on North Korea. We will begin by examining the role of the intelligence in U.S. policymaking and then explore the major institutions and actors in the US foreign policymaking system. We will then examine in-depth U.S. policy towards North Korea over the past 25 years as a case study on how U.S. foreign policymaking works. We will examine the historical context behind American decision-making, present-day issues, and future challenges. We will conclude the seminar by looking more broadly at the U.S. policy towards Northeast Asia, one of the most significant and dynamic regions in global politics.
What exactly is intelligence work and how is it done? How does intelligence, the collection and analysis of the plans and capabilities of our adversaries, fit into the U.S. foreign policymaking process? What goes into preparing the President’s Daily Brief? The “intelligence community” is more than the CIA and FBI. It is a group of federal agencies that includes the National Security Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and many others (16 departments and agencies total). They collect information (for example, how many nuclear weapons China, Iran, or North Korea possesses), assess its accuracy and reliability, and disseminate the information to decisionmakers. In this seminar, we will explore why first-rate intelligence is essential in helping U.S. policymakers both understand and respond to the unprecedented national security threats and challenges the country faces today—and how intelligence is used and not used by senior policymakers. In particular, we will address the implications of the conflict between President Trump and the Intelligence Community.
The U.S. Constitution, which divides power between the three branches of government, has been often described as an “invitation to struggle” over the making of foreign policy. Compared to every other liberal democracy, the U.S. conducts foreign policy in a cumbersome way. Safeguards - each branch having power to check the others - are built in to prevent tyranny, yet they also make it difficult to develop and implement a cohesive foreign policy. It also creates uncertainty as to what any given policy is and gives foreign governments an opportunity to apply pressure at many points. As a result, the decision makers of foreign policy in the U.S. are often difficult to discern. The current administration is a case study in how opaque the policy process can become. In this seminar, we will examine how America’s foreign policy is made in theory and in practice. Theoretically, the policy formulation process should begin with a clear definition of national interests, followed by a delineation of policies that would promote those interests and the allocation of resources to carry them out. In practice, the system sometimes fails to produce a consistent, viable and supportable foreign policy. What does it take to produce good policy outcomes? How can dysfunction be avoided?
Kim Jong-un has recently engaged in historic dialogue with leaders of South Korea, China, the U.S., and other regional powers. He has promised to work towards the “denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula and the normalization of relations with South Korea. Up for debate going forward is whether the North truly intends to denuclearize and, if there is a peace treaty with North Korea, the fate of the U.S.-South Korea alliance, the future of U.S. troops in South Korea, and other security and diplomatic arrangements that have come to be taken for granted over the past 70-plus years. There are many questions that remain unanswered. What does the future hold for North Korea? Does Kim Jong-un genuinely want to chart a different path than the one that his father and grandfather have pursued, trading his nuclear arsenal to rebuild the North’s economy? Will the North ever embrace “complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement” of its nuclear program? There are not many examples of nuclear powers that agreed to such steps. The few that did, such as South Africa and Ukraine, had either just gone through a change of regime or were about to - obviously something that we cannot count on in North Korea. In trying to answer some of these difficult questions, the session will explore past and present U.S. policy towards North Korea based on my personal vantage point as a former CIA officer and NSC staffer.
What is the status of U.S. relations with the key nations of Northeast Asia - Japan, China, and South Korea? How does a potential deal with North Korea affect U.S. relations with these key regional players - and how will they shape their own foreign policies in the future? If the U.S. were to conclude a peace deal with North Korea and pull its troops out of South Korea, what are the implications for the regional balance of power? If the U.S. were to accept North Korea as a de facto nuclear power, what will this mean for the potential nuclear ambitions of Japan and South Korea? How can the United States manage the rivalries and relationships between these three states that are of such pivotal interest to the future of the region - and the world? With President Trump pursuing tariffs against China, and U.S. leaders warning against the threat posed by China, the U.S.-China relationship is now as unsettled as it is important. Will China and America remain trade partners and strategic rivals or is their relationship in the process of being permanently redefined? The seminar will conclude with final thoughts on the role of Northeast Asia in U.S. foreign policy and how to manage relations with this increasingly powerful region in the future.
Special Guest: Paul Heer, former National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence