Robert Kelly (political analyst)

"Robert E. Kelly" redirects here. For the former United States Air Force general, see Robert E. Kelley.

Robert E. Kelly (born September 27, 1972) is an American political analyst on inter-Korean affairs and associate professor in political science at Pusan National University. In March 2017, he and his family rose to fame when his live interview on BBC World News was gatecrashed by his children and wife.

Robert E. Kelly
Kelly in April 2013
Born	(1972-09-27) September 27, 1972 (age 51)
Education	Miami University (BA, History and Political Science 1994) Ohio State University (MA, International Relations 2002) Ohio State University (Ph.D., International Relations 2005)
Occupation(s)	Political science professor, political analyst on inter-Korean affairs
Known for	Political analysis of the Korean Peninsula Gatecrashed BBC News interview (2017)
Spouse	Kim Jung-a
Children	2

Early life and education

Originally from Cuyahoga County, Ohio,^[1][2] Kelly in 1994 graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Miami University with a BA in history and political science. Following his undergraduate studies, he attended Ohio State University and obtained an MA in international relations in 2002 and a Ph.D. in international relations in 2005 and wrote a dissertation titled, The Impact of Non-Governmental Organizations on the Bretton Woods Institutions.^[3] He studied in Germany and had an internship in the German Bundestag.^[4] He speaks German fluently.^[4]

Career

2013 Wikinews interview with Kelly about Kim Jong-un and rising tensions with North Korea.^[5]

Kelly is an associate professor of international relations in the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Pusan National University in Busan, South Korea.^[6] As a political analyst on inter-Korean affairs, he contributes to print and televised media,^[3] and has been referred to as a "damn good Korea analyst" by one of his peers.^[7] He has made media appearances on the BBC World News, China Central Television^[6] and Al Jazeera^[8] and has written for several publications including The Diplomat ^[6] and Foreign Affairs.^[9] He has also provided expert opinion for The Washington Post and Reuters.^[10][11] Kelly is furthermore a prolific contributor to The Interpreter, published by the Australian think tank Lowy Institute.^[12]

BBC News interview (2017)

On March 10, 2017, he and his family rose to fame when his live interview by James Menendez on the impeachment of Park Geun-hye, the President of South Korea, for the BBC World News from his home office was sequentially gatecrashed by his four-year-old daughter and nine-month-old son entering the room, then his wife, Jung-a Kim,^[13] sliding in to drag them out while knocking books off an air-mattress, before closing the door on her knees. The interview continued as normal, with the BBC News hailing the video as their favorite live TV moment of the week.^[14] It became a Twitter Moment and quickly went viral with all four family members becoming individual memes.^[15][16][17] In just one day, the video had over 6 million views on YouTube and became the No. 1 trending video on YouTube in the UK,^[18] later being named No. 10 on YouTube's list of the top 10 trending videos of 2017.^[19]

Many viewers and journalists incorrectly assumed the woman in the video was Kelly's nanny instead of his wife.^[20]

Kelly and his family returned to television on March 14 for an interview about the incident.^[21] In December 2017 he said that "for two weeks we were the most famous family on earth" but he thought it could be "the end of my career as a talking head."^[22]

Variety shows

Kelly's fame arising from the viral video led to his appearance on a South Korean reality television show that focuses on the struggles of fathers raising young children.^[23]

Year	Network	Title	Role	Notes
2017	KBS2	The Return of Superman	Guest	Ep. 184 and 206 (with his children, Marion & James)

Select bibliography

• Kelly, Robert E. (December 27, 2011). "Korea-European Union relations: beyond the FTA?". International Relations of the Asia-Pacific. 12 (1): 101–132. doi:10.1093/IRAP/LCR020.
• ——— (December 1, 2011). "The German-Korean Unification Parallel". The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis. 23 (4): 457–472.
• ——— (July 18, 2011). "A 'Confucian Long Peace' in pre-Western East Asia?". European Journal of International Relations. 18 (3): 407–430. doi:10.1177/1354066111409771. S2CID 146715727.
• ——— (June 1, 2011). "Assessing the impact of NGOs on intergovernmental organizations: The case of the Bretton Woods Institutions". International Political Science Review. 32 (3): 323–344. doi:10.1177/0192512110380572. S2CID 145344682.
• ——— (November 19, 2010). "American Dual Containment in Asia". Geopolitics. 15 (4): 705–725. doi:10.1080/14650041003718325. S2CID 144152785.
• ——— (June 1, 2008). "No 'return to the state': dependency and developmentalism against neo-liberalism". Development in Practice. 18 (3): 319–332. doi:10.1080/09614520802030342. S2CID 154309459.
• ——— (June 1, 2007). "Security Theory in the "New Regionalism"". International Studies Review. 9 (2): 197–229. doi:10.1111/J.1468-2486.2007.00671.X.
• ——— (June 1, 2007). "From International Relations to Global Governance Theory: Conceptualizing NGOs after the Rio Breakthrough of 1992". Journal of Civil Society. 3 (1): 81–99. doi:10.1080/17448680701390786. S2CID 144199282.
• Lebow, Richard Ned; Kelly, Robert (October 1, 2001). "Thucydides and hegemony: Athens and the United States". Review of International Studies. 27 (4): 593–609. doi:10.1017/S0260210501005939. S2CID 146343652.

References

1. Derr, Arius (March 2017). "Ep. 1 – Robert Kelly on Northeast Asian Security, International Relations, and the Koreas". Settlers of Seoul. Retrieved March 27, 2017. I'm from Cleveland.
2. "Robert Kelly – political science and diplomacy professor (Interview)". The Korean Observer. March 19, 2015. Cleveland
3. Kelly, Robert. "C.V. – Robert E. Kelly". Asian Security Blog. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
4. "Menschen, Bilder, Emotionen 2017". Menschen, Bilder, Emotionen (in German). December 3, 2017. RTL. (Clip)
5. Snyder, Scott (April 4, 2013). "North Korea's rising tensions: Wikinews interviews Scott Snyder and Dr Robert Kelly". Wikinews. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
6. "Robert E. Kelly". The Diplomat. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
7. Connelly, Aaron (March 10, 2017). "Since this video is doing the rounds, it is worth noting @Robert_E_Kelly is a damn good Korea analyst".
8. "Robert Kelly, Al Jazeera, July 8 2016, THAAD". YouTube.
9. Kelly, Robert E. (December 18, 2012). "Park's Recreation: How South Korea's Conservative Candidate Saved Her Party". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
10. Fifield, Anna (November 25, 2016). "As the South Korean assembly prepares to impeach the president, paralysis looms". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
11. "Instant View: South Korea's Court Upholds President Park's Impeachment". Reuters. March 10, 2017. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
12. "Robert E Kelly". Lowy Institute. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
13. Johnston, Chris (March 14, 2017). "Robert Kelly: my minor mistake turned family into YouTube stars". The Guardian. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
14. "BBC Tweet: Our favourite live TV moment of the week by far". BBC Newsbeat. March 10, 2017. Retrieved May 4, 2019.
15. Itzkoff, David (March 10, 2017). "David Itzkoff Tweet: Coming into the office on a Friday like". Twitter.
16. "SportsPickle Tweet: Who did it better?". SportsPickle. March 10, 2017.
17. "The Ugly Game Tweet: SportsPickle Reply". The Ugly Game. March 10, 2017.
18. "Children interrupt BBC News interview – BBC News". YouTube. March 10, 2017. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
19. Allocca, Kevin (December 6, 2017). "It's time for #YouTubeRewind: Celebrating what you watched, shared, and created in 2017". Official YouTube Blog. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
20. Roy, Jessica (March 10, 2017). "That Asian mom is not the nanny. Why do so many people assume she is?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
21. "Prof Robert Kelly and the interrupted interview – take two". BBC News. March 14, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
22. Usborne, Simon (December 20, 2017). "The expert whose children gatecrashed his TV interview: 'I thought I'd blown it in front of the whole world'". The Guardian. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
23. Yong, Nicole (September 15, 2021). "15 The Return Of Superman Kids & Siblings We Loved To Watch Grow Up And Where They Are Now". ZULA.sg. Retrieved May 23, 2022.

External links

 

Wikinews has related news:

• Wikinews interviews Dr. Robert Kelly and Dr. Jim Gill regarding joint scientific venture in North Korea

• Official website  
• Robert Kelly on Twitter  
• Robert Kelly on Facebook  
• Robert Kelly's channel on YouTube
•   Media related to Robert Kelly (political analyst) at Wikimedia Commons