I am very happy to invite you to the First World Congress of Security Studies (WCSS) hosted by the Research Institute for National Security Affairs (RINSA) at Korea National Defense University (KNDU). We hope you will attend this historic and illuminating conference on Korean security. To provide you with some background, this event was first conceived in the summer of 2016. The motivation for planning this event was that the Republic of Korea faces one of the most hostile security situations in the world and therefore urgently needs to improve its security studies, and thus, RINSA at KNDU should play a key role in dealing with this. After three years, this initiative has borne fruit as the First World Congress of Security Studies. I am truly thankful and filled with deep emotion for this moment which would not have been possible without the efforts of the leadership of RINSA and KNDU, and other members that made this event possible. With this in my heart, I would be grateful for your attendance and participation which we hope will be illuminating for both you and us.

As you well know, we are standing in the middle of a historical breakpoint as to whether peaceful denuclearization of North Korea nuclear weapons and a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula are to be successfully implemented or not. The insights of pundits and experts on security studies are needed more than at any other time. The First WCSS is designed to bring forth wisdom from world-leading scholars in security studies for pursuing solutions for problems that we are facing. As an inaugurating event, we invited Stephen Walt representing Realism, John Ikenberry representing Liberalism, and Peter Katzenstein for Constructivism who will deliver their views regarding the security situation in East Asia. In addition, security experts from all around the world will present, discuss, and debate the issues of great power rivalry and the North Korean nuclear problem in order to produce collective wisdom which will be beneficial in solving the conundrum of denuclearization and establishing a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. I cordially invite you to participate in our historic moment.

Thank you.

August 2019
Prof. Joonsub Kim
Director-General
Research Institute for National Security Affairs