Korea Travel Grant for CSS Prof

Dr. Bruce Bechtol Jr. of Angelo State University’s security studies faculty has been awarded a travel grant from South Korea’s Institute of Unification Education to spend about four weeks conducting research and delivering lectures throughout South Korea Oct. 4-30.

The grant will cover Bechtol’s airfare, accommodations, meals and local travel expenses. During the first part of the trip, he will conduct collaborative research with his counterparts in the South Korean Ministry of Unification on various issues important to the potential future unification of the Korean Peninsula.

“Recent issues I’ve written about,” Bechtol said, “such as North Korean arms proliferation in the Middle East, corruption within the North Korean government, and stability within the North Korean Army, these are the things we’ll be talking about because they will all be important in a unified Korea, as well as in the process of moving toward a unified Korea.”

Bechtol will also present a series of lectures on North Korean issues at six South Korean universities, including a couple of ASU’s sister institutions, and at various national institutes and think tanks. At the end of his trip, he will deliver a research paper at a national conference sponsored by the South Korean Ministry of Education.

During his visit to South Korea, Bechtol will continue to teach his full schedule of online security studies courses and do some recruiting work on behalf of ASU.

“There is a great deal of interest in Angelo State University in South Korea,” Bechtol said. “South Korea’s mid-size and smaller universities have always had trouble finding U.S. universities to send their students to on exchange programs. ASU has helped fill that vacuum. So my plan is to go over there and be an ambassador for Angelo State University.”

A retired U.S. Marine and former intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency, Bechtol joined the ASU faculty in 2010. He is an internationally known expert on North Korean military and political issues and is regularly quoted as an expert source by national and international media. He has written four seminal books on North Korea, including his latest work, “North Korea and Regional Security in the Kim Jong-un Era: A New National Security Dilemma” (2014). His books are available through Barnes & Noble, Amazon and several other online sources.