Bruce E. Bechtol, Jr. (Ph.D. Union Institute), is an award winning professor of political science at Angelo State University and a retired Marine. He was formerly on the faculty at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College (2005–2010) and the Air Command and Staff College (2003–2005). Dr. Bechtol served as an adjunct visiting professor at the Korea University Graduate School of International Studies (2006–2007). He was an intelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1997 until 2003, eventually serving as the senior analyst for Northeast Asia in the Intelligence Directorate (J2) on the Joint Staff in the Pentagon. He formerly sat on the editorial review board of the East Asian Review from 2005 to 2009 and served as editor of the Defense Intelligence Journal from 2004 to 2005. He is currently on the editorial advisory board of the Korea Observer (2011–present), and is on the scientific board of Global Humanities (2014-present). He is the current president of the International Council on Korean Studies, and serves on the board of directors of the Council on U.S.-Korean Security Studies. He is the author of North Korea and Regional Security in the Kim Jong-un Era: A New International Security Dilemma (Palgrave Macmillan: 2014), The Last Days of Kim Jong-Il: The North Korean Threat in a Changing Era (University of Nebraska Press: 2013), Defiant Failed State: The North Korean Threat to International Security (Potomac Books: 2010), and Red Rogue: The Persistent Challenge of North Korea (Potomac Books: 2007), and he is the editor of Confronting Security Challenges on the Korean Peninsula (Marine Corps University Press: 2011) and The Quest for a Unified Korea: Strategies for the Cultural and Interagency Process (Marine Corps University Foundation: 2007). He is also the author of more than thirty articles in peer-reviewed journals. A widely sought after expert on North Korean international security issues, Dr. Bechtol has been called on to present commentary to the BBC, CNN, CBC, FOX News, Radio New Zealand, syndicated nationwide radio shows such as POTUS politics on SIRIUS/XM, the John Batchelor show, the Frank Gaffney show, and several interviews on National Public Radio (to name a few). His latest (grant sponsored) project involves research about North Korea and proliferation to the Middle East and Africa.
