Institute for Corean-American Studies Chuck Downs Biographic Sketch Former senior official of the Pentagon and State Department Chuck Downs, ICAS Fellow, whose career in defense and national security issues spans more than two decades, wrote Over the Line: North Korea’s Negotiating Strategy while serving as Associate Director of the Asian Studies Program at the American Enterprise Institute. The book explains how North Korea succeeds even though it brings very little to the negotiating table. A Korean (Hangul) version was published within months of the book’s English publication and a Japanese version in 2002. Mr. Downs served the majority of his career in the Pentagon, as Deputy Director for Regional Affairs and Congressional Relations in the Pentagon’s East Asia office. He was responsible for drafting the East Asia strategy documents of the Department of Defense and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal (1996) and Defense Civilian Service Medal (1993). As Assistant Director of the Office of Foreign Military Rights Affairs, he was responsible for negotiations with the United Kingdom regarding military use of Diego Garcia and access arrangements in Singapore and Australia. He was selected to attend the Department of State’s Senior Seminar training program at the Foreign Service Institute, 1989-1990. In the 1980s, as Chief of Policy Analysis in the Department of the Interior’s territorial and international affairs office, his duties included representing Interior in the Micronesian status negotiations and the negotiations for arrangements governing U. S. use of Kwajalein Missile Range in the mid-Pacific. He has published numerous articles on foreign policy and defense issues, in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. In addition to being the author of Over the Line (AEI Press, 1999), he is co-editor with Ambassador James R. Lilley of Crisis in the Taiwan Strait (NDU Press, 1997). He is now working on a book regarding the North Korean regime. Mr. Downs graduated with honors in political science from Williams College in 1972. Mr. Downs retired in June 2000 from the position of Senior Defense and Foreign Policy Advisor to the House Policy Committee of the U. S. House of Representatives and has worked as an independent consultant on foreign policy matters since that time. As a Senior Fellow at the National Institute for Public Policy he chaired the North Korea Working Group, providing policy recommendations to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He testifies before Congress and frequently appears on PBS’s Lehrer Newshour and NBC, where he is a consultant on security policy. Since 2001, he has served on the board of the United States Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. ICAS Web Site Links for Chuck Downs: Fall 2004 Symposium Winter2000 Symposium North Korea-U. S. Relations: Issues and Answers This page last updated 1/3/2005 jdb

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