Northeastern Ph.D. student awarded a fellowship to study US foreign policy on the Korean Peninsula
Matthew Fleming, a Northeastern Ph.D. student studying political science, will research U.S. policy and ties with the Korean Peninsula at the Pacific Forum.
Matthew Fleming’s fascination with Northeast Asia began at an early age, when his father returned from a work trip to Japan with exotic gifts and travel stories.
“It was really my first introduction into a world or culture outside of what I was familiar with,” says Fleming, who grew up in a small town in North Carolina.
Now a doctoral student at Northeastern University, Fleming was recently named a non-resident James A. Kelly Korea Fellow at the Pacific Forum, a nonprofit foreign policy research institute.
The program promotes research aimed at strengthening U.S. ties with the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and promoting inter-Korean relations.
Northeastern professor Mai’a Cross says Fleming’s expertise in Asia-Pacific geopolitics positions him well for impactful contributions at both the Pacific Forum and the university’s international affairs center.
“Matthew’s research is leading the way in understanding shifting geopolitics in the Asia-Pacific,” Cross says. “His expertise will be a major asset to both the Pacific Forum and our center.”
During his 12-month fellowship, Fleming will conduct self-directed research under the guidance of Pacific Forum senior staff.
“To get to do a fellowship on the vital role of the Korean Peninsula, as well as its broader engagement, fits in perfectly with my research focus at Northeastern,” Fleming says. “I think it will answer a lot of the foundational questions that I need to address in my dissertation.”
He hopes his research at the Pacific Forum will result in policy recommendations and actionable support of U.S. foreign policy in the region.
Fleming’s research explores the current U.S.-South Korea-Japan trilateral relationship, the concept of minilateralism — flexible collaboration among a few countries on regional issues — security dynamics in Northeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific, human rights and U.S. foreign policy toward both Japan and South Korea.
“The Indo-Pacific has always been a really important region,” he says. “It has some of the strongest security concerns globally for future instability, as well as some of the most important supply chains and U.S. allies and partners.”
In U.S. policy terms, the Indo-Pacific spans from India’s west coast to the U.S. west coast, covering South Asia, Northeast Asia and Oceania. The region includes over half the world’s population and drives much of the global economy, accounting for about 60% of global GDP and two-thirds of global economic growth, Fleming says.
“How the U.S. continues to engage in the region will continue to dictate how the region’s future will unfold,” he says.
At Northeastern, Fleming has worked as a research assistant under Mai’a Cross at the Center for International Affairs and World Cultures, contributing to a multiyear, Carnegie-funded project on transnational political networks and international cooperation.
He has also served as a teaching assistant for an international law course with professor Denise Garcia and for a Dialogue of Civilizations program in Tokyo and Kyoto led by professors Lori Gardinier and Liza Weinstein.
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Before coming to Northeastern, Fleming lived in Northeast Asia for four years, earning a dual master’s degree in global affairs and policy from Yonsei University in Seoul, and media and governance from Keio University in Tokyo.
He also studied in Nagoya, Japan, for six months during his undergraduate years. He even climbed Mount Fuji on his 21st birthday.
“Moving to Korea to do my master’s and then going back to Japan to do the dual master’s component of my master’s degrees gave me a really unique position to study U.S. foreign policy and the U.S. role in the region from Korean and Japanese perspectives, as the majority of the professors were Korean and Japanese scholars,” Fleming says.
Instead of learning about U.S. foreign policy solely from a U.S. viewpoint, he was able to examine how U.S. influence is perceived in Korea and Japan and how both countries respond to it.
“Japan and Korea have been referred to as the cornerstone and linchpin to security and peace in the region by the United States,” Fleming says. “A lot of that boils down to them being some of our strongest security allies in the region, besides Australia and Philippines.
“They have played very critical roles for the U.S. interest, but also they’re major players in the region themselves without the U.S.”
The U.S. backs the Free and Open Indo-Pacific initiative — originally proposed by former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — which promotes peace, economic growth and a rules-based international order grounded in free trade, navigation rights and the rule of law.
Fleming hopes to become a professor while shaping policy and strategy in the region. He has interned with the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, the East Asia Institute, North Korean Review and the Journal of Territorial and Maritime Studies.
He also represented the U.S. at the first U.S.-South Korea-Japan Trilateral Global Leadership Youth Summit and is a founding member of the State Department’s Young Trilateral Leaders Alumni Network and a Young Leader with the Pacific Forum.
