Asia Foundation Announces Upcoming Move of Scott Snyder and the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy to Council on Foreign Relations

SAN FRANCISCO & WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Asia Foundation today announced that the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy and its director and founder, Mr. Scott Snyder, a preeminent scholar on U.S.-Korea relations, will be moving to the Council on Foreign Relations, where Mr. Snyder will become a Senior Fellow for Korea Studies and Director of the Council’s Program on U.S.-Korea Policy.

“I am particularly thankful for the encouragement and support of my colleagues. I will look forward to future opportunities to collaborate and will follow with great interest their work in the months and years to come.”

Launched in February 2009 as an Asia Foundation project designed to expand cooperation between the United States and Korea, the Center has developed a highly influential reputation contributing to the U.S.-Korea policy agenda through research, conferences, and publications examining how to broaden U.S.-South Korea security cooperation to new areas, the U.S.-South Korea nuclear relationship, and coordination of policy toward North Korea.

During his nearly 11 years at The Asia Foundation, Mr. Snyder has been an active commentator on developments on the Korean Peninsula. As The Asia Foundation’s country representative to Korea from 2000-2004, Mr. Snyder was a close observer of South Korea’s democratic consolidation following its first political transition in power, and provided media analysis from Seoul on the first inter-Korean summit in 2000 and the unfolding of the second North Korean nuclear crisis in 2002-2003. Mr. Snyder also led the Foundation’s 50^th anniversary of its Korea programs, managed a series of technical exchange and cooperation programs designed for North Korean specialists, and wrote books on the NGO experience in North Korea and on Korea-China relations.

Mr. Snyder established the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy at The Asia Foundation in early 2009 with generous support from the Smith Richardson Foundation and several other private donors. Under his leadership, the Center has become widely known as an innovative source of research and publications on major U.S.-Korea issues with notable successes. Center programs and writings have contributed to the development of the June 2009 U.S.-Korea Joint Vision Statement, dialogues on North Korean instability, the U.S.-Korea nuclear relationship, and the discussion regarding the timing and viability of transferring wartime operational control of the Korean military to Korean authority. Mr. Snyder, as director of the Center, testified on two occasions to subcommittees of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on issues concerning U.S. policy toward North Korea.

“South Korea has transitioned into a democratic nation and emerged as a leading economic power. The Asia Foundation – with nearly 60 years of on-the-ground experience in Korea – was uniquely positioned to incubate, and now successfully spin off, an innovative, ideas-driven U.S.-Korea research center,” said David D. Arnold, The Asia Foundation’s President. “We are deeply grateful for Scott’s significant contributions, first as our Korea country representative, followed by his tremendous success in launching the Center. We are pleased that the Center will become part of such a valued and complementary organization as the Council on Foreign Relations. On behalf of The Asia Foundation, we wish him all the best in his new role and look forward to his continued insights on U.S.-Korea policy.”

The Asia Foundation, an international non-governmental organization, is widely known for its multi-disciplinary development approach, deep local knowledge, and technical expertise in efforts to address the most challenging and intractable problems in the Asia-Pacific region.

“It has truly been a privilege to contribute to the mission of The Asia Foundation. The Foundation has developed a unique set of programs designed to strengthen responsive government throughout developing Asia, and, as the Foundation’s representative in Korea, I was fortunate to have had a front row seat for Korea’s democratic transformation,” said Mr. Scott Snyder, director of the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy and senior associate of Washington programs in the International Relations program of The Asia Foundation. “I am particularly thankful for the encouragement and support of my colleagues. I will look forward to future opportunities to collaborate and will follow with great interest their work in the months and years to come.”

As part of the Center’s smooth transition, Mr. Snyder will continue to work on various Asia Foundation projects in the coming months, including a workshop on U.S.-Korea cooperation in the area of international development.

About The Asia Foundation

The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization committed to the development of a peaceful, prosperous, just, and open Asia-Pacific region. The Foundation supports Asian initiatives to improve governance, law and civil society; women's empowerment; economic reform and development; the environment; and international relations. Drawing on nearly 60 years of experience in Asia, the Foundation collaborates with private and public partners to support leadership and institutional development, exchanges, and policy research. With 18 offices throughout Asia, an office in Washington, DC, and its headquarters in San Francisco, the Foundation addresses these issues on both a country and regional level. In 2010, the Foundation provided more than $98 million in program support and distributed nearly one million books and journals valued at over $42 million.

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