L Gordon Flake

CEO, Perth USAsia Centre, University of Western Australia
L. Gordon Flake is the founding CEO of the Perth USAsia Centre. Having built an internationally recognised profile in Washington DC through his think-tank expertise and leadership, Prof Flake relocated to Perth to establish the Centre and to build a broader world-class Indo-Pacific strategic community.

Prior to joining the Centre, he was the Executive Director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, a Senior Fellow and Associate Director of the Program on Conflict Resolution at The Atlantic Council of the United States and prior to that Director for Research and Academic Affairs at the Korea Economic Institute of America.

Prof Flake is one of Australia’s leading authorities on North Korea having spent nearly three decades focused on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia politics. Prof Flake has edited several volumes on developments in Asia and recently co-authored “North Korea’s Missile Stand-off: Prepare For War” for Australian Foreign Affairs. He is a frequent contributor to Australian and international news media outlets including the ABC, The Australian, Sky News, Globe and Mail, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Australian Outlook, and more.

He has authored numerous book chapters and volumes on North Korea including the companion volumes One Step Back? Reassessing and Ideal Security State for Northeast Asia 2025 (Mansfield Foundation, March 2011) and Toward an Ideal Security State for Northeast Asia 2025 (Mansfield Foundation, September 2010).

Gordon holds a number of strategic leadership roles including currently serving on the United States Studies Centre Board, the UWA Oceans Institute Advisory Board and as Fellow of the College at St Catherine’s College at The University of Western Australia. He has previously served on the Board of the United States Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (USCSCAP) as co-Vice Chair of the Board of the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, on the Advisory Council on the Korea Economic Institute of America, and on the International Advisory Board of the David M. Kennedy Centre at Brigham Young University.

He received his BA degree in Korean with a minor in international relations from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He completed his MA at the David M. Kennedy Centre for International and Area Studies, also at BYU. He speaks both fluent Korean and Laotian.