Mailing address
One Brattle Square 516
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
79 John F. Kennedy Street, Mailbox 134
Cambridge, MA, 02138
Kwang-Chan Ahn
Research Fellow, International Security Program
Contact:
Telephone: 617-384-8086
Fax: 617-496-0606
Email: kwang-chan_ahn@ksg.harvard.edu
Experience
During his 37 years in the Republic of Korea (ROK)'s Army, Dr. Kwang-Chan Ahn (Major General, ret.) led a career unmatched in its breadth, having served in the Presidential Security Service, Capital Defense Command, UN Command Military Armistice Commission, 2nd Korea Army, 65th Infantry Division, and ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command in various staff and leadership positions. He is widely acknowledged and consulted on his expertise on ROK-U.S. combined operations and military relations, as well as on Korea’s policies concerning the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). After his retirement from the Army in 2002, he obtained his Ph.D. in Law at Dong-Guk University, Seoul, Korea, with a dissertation on the military operation command authority on the Korean Peninsula. In June 2004, he began the second phase of his career in national defense—but this time, in the civilian government—when he was appointed as the Deputy Minister for Policy & Public Affairs of the Ministry of National Defense (MND). During his 20-month tenure at MND, he served as the senior ROK representative to the Korea-U.S. ‘Future of the Alliance’ and ‘Security Policy’ meetings which dealt with issues rising from the Korea-U.S. military alliance, including U.S. base relocation in Korea and the U.S. Force Korea realignment. In March 2006, he was appointed by the President as the Chairman (vice-minister level) of the National Emergency Planning Commission where he oversaw governmental wartime preparation planning processes. He retired from this position in February 2007.
