Benjamin R. Young
Dr. Benjamin R. Young is an assistant professor of intelligence studies at Fayetteville State University. He was previously a Stanton Foundation Nuclear Security fellow at the RAND Corporation from 2024 to 2025. He is the author of the book, Guns, Guerillas, and the Great Leader: North Korea and the Third World (Stanford University Press, 2021). His second book, Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions: How China, Cuba, and Vietnam Transformed Guerilla Warfare, is coming out in July 2026 with Cornell University Press. He has published more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles on North Korea, East Asian politics, and US foreign policy in academic journals. He has also written journalistic pieces for COMPACT magazine, Foreign Policy, The American Conservative, The National Interest, The Hill, and The Washington Post. He holds a PhD in Asian history from George Washington University, an MA in history from SUNY Brockport, and a BS in history from SUNY Brockport.
Author's Articles
How the Soviet Collapse Shaped North Korea
Dr. Young argues that the fall of the USSR profoundly influenced Pyongyang's grand strategy. Rather than embracing reform, he explains that North Korea interpreted the Soviet collapse as a failure of ideological fervor and leadership.
Saving Socialism: What North Korea Learned from the Collapse of the Soviet Union
The sudden collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s sent shockwaves through the remaining communist world, confronting states like China and North Korea with an existential challenge. While scholars have extensively examined how Beijing interpreted and…