Julie Chung

Ambassador Julie Chung is a distinguished fellow jointly affiliated with the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs. She is a senior advisor for the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University and a member of its advisory council. She is also the founder of the geopolitical advisory firm Prism Global.

An experienced US diplomat who has worked on key foreign policy and national security challenges across the Indo-Pacific and Latin America for three decades, Chung has been a leader in expanding trade, defense cooperation, and trusted technology. Before joining the Atlantic Council, she was the ambassador to Sri Lanka from 2022 to 2026, strengthening maritime security partnerships in close coordination with Quad partners.

Chung served as acting assistant secretary and principal deputy assistant secretary of state for the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs from 2019 to 2021. Prior to that, she was director of the Office of Japanese Affairs. She traveled to North Korea numerous times between 2001 and 2003 as a key member of the Korean Economic Development Organization negotiations with North Korea. She also served as special assistant on Asia to Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage in 2003. Her other postings include Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Japan, China, Colombia, and Iraq as chief of staff for the coordination of civilian-military foreign assistance.

Chung holds a BA from the University of California, San Diego and an MA from Columbia University. She is the recipient of the Presidential Rank Award for leading repatriation efforts of US citizens during COVID-19 and the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award.