Australia and Korea: Middle Power Parallels

Currently, he serves as the head of the Center for ASEAN–India Studies at the KNDA. In that capacity, he leads KNDA's policy research on Korea's diplomatic approach to Southeast Asia, South Asia and beyond. He also serves as a member of advisory group at the Presidential Committee on New Southern Policy in Korea.

His current research focuses on Korea's role in the geopolitical dynamics and regional architecture in East Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific region. His recent writings include “Is Seoul Turning toward the Indo-Pacific? A Korean Perspective on the Moon-Biden Summit” (2021); New Southern Policy: Korea’s Newfound Ambition in Search of Strategic Autonomy (2021); “US Indo-Pacific Strategy and Directions for ROK-US Cooperation” (2020); Thirty Years of ASEAN-ROK Relations (in Korean, co-edited, 2019), among others.

He received BA and MA in international relations from Seoul National University in Korea and PhD in political science from University of Washington in the United States.

Dr Richardson’s research focuses on the diplomatic and strategic dynamics of Northeast Asia, with a particular focus on Japan-Korea peninsula relations. She obtained Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Asian Studies from Monash University, which entailed extensive Japanese and Korean language study. She also completed a Master’s in Political Science at Keio University in Tokyo and a PhD in international, political and strategic studies at the ANU.

She is also a Chief Investigator on a 5-year Academy of Korean Studies Laboratory Project examining South Korea's past, present and future development trajectory, led by Professor Keun Lee (Seoul National University), and a Chief Investigator on an Australian Department of Defence Strategic Policy Grant examining the weaponisation of trade and its implications for Australia, led by Professor Lisa Toohey (University of Newcastle).

She has published widely on the politics of economic development, techno-industrial strategy, economic statecraft, and the clean energy shift for scholarly and popular audiences, and regularly contributes to policy and public debate on these topics. She currently holds a Scientia Fellowship at UNSW Sydney (2019-2022) and an Asia Society Fellowship (2021-2022) and has also held Visiting Fellowships at Seoul National University (as a Korea Foundation Fellow) and China Foreign Affairs University. She is an elected member of the Executive Council of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) and a member of the Research Committee of the Jubilee Australia Research Centre.

Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Sydney. She also completed her Economics (Social Sciences) Degree at Sydney University, where she was awarded first-class Honours and the University Medal for Academic Excellence.