Jay Lee
Major Jaewook "Jay" Lee is a fellow at the Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is also currently assigned CWMD Strategist of Republic of Korea (ROK) Joint Chief of Staffs. His earlier career began as an Infantry Officer. After graduation from the Korea Military Academy, he was assigned to the ROK Army's front line infantry division against North Korea as a Scout Platoon Leader.
After completing his duty as Platoon Leader, he was deployed to the Afghanistan Reconstruction Support Group, International Security Assistance Forces. He served as the ROK Provincial Reconstruction Team to stabilize Afghanistan and contributed for the Operation Enduring Freedom Global War on Terrorism.
He volunteered for the Special Forces Qualification Course. Upon graduating, he joined the Special Forces as the Commanding Officer of Operational Detachment Alpha. Due to his experience, he studied with the Special Operations Organization with reference to the case of Nunn-Cohen Amendment 1987 and insisted the necessity of Joint Special Operations Command like USSOCOM, through his master's thesis. He is an Honor Graduate from the Korea National Defense University.
He received the staff officer position with the Operation Branch of ROK&US Combined Division. He began as the Battle Captain of Current Operation (CUOPS) and managed the War Room. Shortly after, he moved to Training & Exercise (TREX) and organized Division's exercise under theater level exercise suspended situation. In recognition of these services, he was awarded the US Army Commendation Medal.
He was selected as Major and was a student of the Commander and General Staff course. During this course he published paper on US Special Forces' Unconventional Warfare during the initial phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom and was selected as an Honor Graduate. He also completed coursework in Political Science at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies. After graduation, he returned to the Special Forces as the Commanding Officer of the National Level Counter Terror Unit.
Recently, he served in strategic level organization, such as strategy department of ROK Joint Chief of Staffs and ROK&US Combined Forces Command. In the field of strategy, he attempts to combine academy and tasks. His interests are in conflict between Nuclear Weapon States such as The Sino-Soviet Border Conflict in 1969, Kargil War in 1999, and US Forces of Early Cold War era, including various types of missiles and rockets (Honest John, Lance Missile, etc.), and organizations like 'Pentomic' Division.
Recent Publications
- How U.S. Unconventional Warfare could shape Ground Operations? Focusing on Indirect Approach Theory and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Research on Joint Military Forces No.31, ROK Joint Military Forces University, 2020.
- Study on ROK type Joint Special Operations Command, Research on Joint Military Forces No.26, ROK Joint Military Forces University, 2016.
