BY David Terraso
South Korea's Woosong University has named John E. Endicott, professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and director of the Center for International Strategy, Technology and Policy for the past 18 years at Georgia Tech, as its next president and vice chancellor.
Endicott also will serve as the vice chancellor of Solbridge International. He will assume his new posts at the schools in Daejeon, South Korea, on Aug. 20.
He will be the first American president of a four-year private university in South Korea. Woosong University has about 7,000 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate courses. It features programs in information technology, health and welfare, hotel management and culinary arts. Its newest college, Solbridge International, will specialize in international affairs and business management.
About 85 percent of the university courses are offered in English, and the school offers intensive training in Korean, Japanese and Chinese languages. It has more than 600 international students from the United States, China, India, Vietnam and Japan. The university is in the process of expanding by establishing satellite campuses in other Asian countries.
"We're building an innovative school of business and international studies in Daejeon that will give students a real international experience not only in Korea but other parts of Asia," Endicott said.
In 1991, he founded the Limited Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone for Northeast Asia, which seeks to permanently remove nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Taiwan and Mongolia. It is also moving to remove tactical nuclear weapons from eastern Siberian Russia, northeast China and parts of Alaska. Both Endicott and the program were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.
Endicott also began the Korean Initiative at Georgia Tech to offer courses in Korean affairs, security issues, language and political economies as well as guest lectures.
He received his doctorate in international affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, run jointly by Tufts and Harvard universities, in 1974.
He had a 31-year career in government, with 28 of those years as an officer in the Air Force and three as a member of the senior executive service of the Department of Defense.
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