Alumnus Jung-won Yi is Policing for a More Peaceful World

Alumnus Jung-won Yi is Policing for a More Peaceful World
Jung-won Yi

Jung-won Yi is Senior Inspector and Chief of the Office of Commissioner of the Gyeonggi Bukbu (Northern) Provincial Police Agency, Korea National Police Agency (KNPA)

Tell us about your career journey and how you found George Mason.

I completed my Master’s degree in Peace Operations from the Schar School of Policy and Government in 2018.

I graduated from the Korea National Police University in March of 2000 and started off my career as inspector, the first of the KNPA’s command ranks.

In 2005, I happened to be in London for a week right after the London 7/7 terror attack. I saw and checked all the police activities and investigations daily, including the CCTV network, which was used to catch the perpetrators of the attack, the first such case of CCTV usage for criminal investigation in the world. In 2006, I won the Korean Government Short-Term Fellowship Program for Overseas Study for government officials and received permission from the British Transport Police headquarters in London to guest research their CCTV network.

When I got married in 2008 and my two kids came to this world, I started to think of the future for them and wished that I could contribute somehow to making a better world for them, working as a police officer to protect and serve peoples beyond the borders. Thus, in 2016, I applied for and won a second Korean Government Long-Term Fellowship Program for Overseas Study.

I first had to choose my family’s destination. After considering Australia and a return to England, my wife’s choice was for the DC area. She wanted to live in the east coast of the US after her stay in the west coast before our marriage. There I found out GMU had a "peace operations" program, the only such master’s program in the world at that time (as far as I remember).

It felt like a destiny to me.

Are there Mason professors with whom you still keep in touch?

I still stay in touch with Professors Mike Dziedzic and Robert Perito (both adjunct faculty at GMU).  I think Messieurs Perito and Dziedzic were the best examples which can show you the true strength of Schar School faculty. 

Mr. Perito, the first graduate of GMU's peace operations program, worked in the US government like State and Justice and as staff of NSC in the White House. Recently, he is focusing on security sector and police reform for the UN.  It was an exciting and insightful experience to learn and research on the subject of intergovernmental cooperation under his guidance and from his first-hand experiences.

Mr. Dziedzic, a retired colonel of the US Air Force, started his research and active participation in major peace operations around the world in the US Institute of Peace, and came up with this novel concept of "criminal power structure" on which the world governments and the UN can practically plan and perform solutions to fight violence and wars on the field.

These two professors’ proposed ways to reform and perform security policies happened to have a common interest with me, the only active-duty police officer in the class. I think this kind of vindicated and made stronger my belief in the increasing importance of the role of police and criminal investigative activities in keeping the world peace. 

What are some memorable moments from your life at Mason?

Schar School had many internationals from all over the world; some of them were from the very places of the on-going conflicts.  It was so precious to hear from and discuss with them, who had first-person perspectives and experiences of how and why these miseries came to be.

It was also valuable to meet other Korean students from master’s and doctoral programs at GMU. Their passion and endeavors were a great motivator to my study in my program. Every classmate knew that I was a South Korean government official on a national scholarship, so I had to try my best, and ended up with 3.85 GPA upon graduation.

Any words for our students?

I will gladly send both my children to GMU if they want to in the future.

I love and am proud of GMU.

It’s really fortunate to have a campus here in Korea so that I can meet you all here.

You have made a great choice and I believe it will open the door to great opportunities and places where you can dream big and act on it.

This country needs all the experiences that you will bring home.

We need more of these bridges to connect South Korea with the rest of the world now more than ever.

Don’t hesitate and never give up for life is long and the world waiting for you is still big enough with so many possibilities.