Dr. Sorin Lungu, advisor to Joint Chiefs of Staff, professor at National Defense College:
“North Korea’s Nuclear Tests and Related Security Problems for the United States”

On Thursday evening October 26, the Washington Internship Program hosted a guest speaker, Dr. Sorin Lungo, who delivered a lecture about recent nuclear testing in North Korea within the context of global security. The talk was delivered exclusively to WIP interns and was followed by a discussion period and a reception at WIP’s International House. Dr. Sorin Lungu works for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and teaches at the National Defense College in Washington, D.C. Originally from Romania, Dr. Lungu brought both a European perspective and American military insight to this important topic. Dr. Lungu learned his Ph.D. in international affairs at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Massachusetts and a Masters degree in national security affairs (with a specialization in Western Europe) from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in California as well as a Masters in mathematics from the University of Bucharest. Lungu also attended the Bucharest Academy of Economic Sciences and the Austrian Diplomatic Academy in Vienna; he was awarded research fellowships by the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris, France and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Germany. Lungu is an associate member of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, and his articles were published in the RUSI Journal, Comparative Strategy, Defense and Security Analysis, American Diplomacy, and Strategic Insights. A former broker at the Romanian Commodities Exchange, Lungu was a member of the Romanian diplomatic corps. Such interdisciplinary training made Lungu a superb speaker on his specialty: U.S. defense policy. Lungu’s wife is an American military officer.

Dr. Lungu discussed North Korea’s provocative nuclear testing, which violated United Nation’s provisions, in light of U.S. relations with China and access to nuclear weaponry by Iranian and terrorist operatives. He addressed U.S. strategic errors in the Iraq War and their impact on the rift between America and its European allies. Dr. Lungu speculated about future business developments in relationship to U.S. democratic leadership. This talk was particularly relevant to the large number of interns from South Korea taking part in the Washington Internship Program. The Korean students were sensitive to the way North Korea’s nuclear conduct affects the price of the yen relative to the dollar and inhibits international investment in Asia. Dr. Sorin examined the relationship between technology, wealth, and power among transatlantic partners. He focused on   global security and environmental factors following the Cold War when large-scale, man-made catastrophes threaten the world in unprecedented ways. For the first time in human history, warfare has been privatized now that terrorist cells and fundamentalist Islamic groups – as well as rogue nations – have the capacity to destroy life on a massive scale as only super-powers could do in the past.