Yena Kim

Yena Kim is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research lies at the intersection of international relations and comparative politics, examining how domestic politics shape state behavior in foreign policy—and how foreign policy in turn shapes domestic politics—with a particular focus on international cooperation and conflict. Her dissertation, Populist Leaders in Power and International Cooperation, asks why and when populist leaders in democracies undermine international cooperation and pursue more conflictual foreign policy, and how democratic partners respond to populist accession in counterpart countries. She argues that the strength of domestic populist demand moderates both relationships: it shapes when populists' political incentives translate into distinctive international behavior, and it conditions whether partner countries interpret populist accession as a credible signal of institutional decay. She tests this theory using a multi-method strategy that combines cross-national observational analyses, event-study designs, survey experiments, and qualitative case studies. Before pursuing her Ph.D., Yena earned a B.A. with Highest Honors in Political Science and Russian Language and Literature, as well as an M.A. in Political Science, both from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.