Ross Tokola is a nonresident fellow at the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative within the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He is currently the principal investigator establishing a US government-sponsored strategic dialogue series for the Council to align perspectives on deterrence between United States, Indo-Pacific, and European experts and officials.
His portfolio includes security partnerships and dynamics across the Indo-Pacific and between the Indo-Pacific and Europe, with personal experience having lived for nearly a decade in East Asia, and over twenty years in Europe. Previously, he was a program manager at the East-West Center’s office in Washington, DC; served as a program officer at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul; and worked for the US embassies both in South Korea and in the United Kingdom. A specialist on the Indo-Pacific, and particularly on Korea, he has researched and led dialogues on US-South Korea relations as well as on international security and economy in projects sponsored by the US Department of State and by Indo-Pacific foundations. One of his recent dialogue reports, “U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy after One Year: Perspectives from Allies, Partners, and across the Indo-Pacific” (February 2024), was endorsed by US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink and US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu. He has also been a US delegate in track 1.5 engagement among delegations from Korea, Japan, Mongolia, China, and Russia.
In addition to studying the Korean language at Sogang University in Seoul, he holds a first-class honors BA and MA in philosophy from Heythrop College, University of London, and a Master of Philosophy in international relations from the department of politics and international studies at the University of Cambridge. He was the first foreigner to compete nationally in traditional Mongolian archery, competing in three national traditional Mongolian sporting festivals and two Mongolian state championships.