Do Young Gong

Do Young Gong D-"OH" (as in cookie dough) Yung

Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science M.S. in Applied Statistics

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Welcome!

I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where I received a Master’s in Applied Statistics in 2025. I am currently a Schroeder Fellow at the Cline Center at the University of Illinois and a graduate student affiliate at Arms Control & Domestic and International Security.

My research interests include political violence, conflict management and resolution, political economy of conflict, and leader survival. In my dissertation, I examine: 1) how wartime coup attempts—the most destabilizing form of government fragmentation—affect the management and resolution of civil wars, 2) how states effectively restore stability following coup attempts, and 3) how the restoration of post-coup stability influences conflict management and resolution efforts.

My research has appeared in International Studies Quarterly, World Development, and International Review of Public Administration. My research has received supports from Arms Control & Domestic and International Security, Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies, and APSA Conflict Processes Section.

Interests
  • Civil Wars, Coups, Protests
  • Conflict Management
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Political Economy of Violence
  • Leader Survival
  • Political Methodology
Education

  • PhD in Political Science, 2026 (expected)

    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  • MS in Applied Statistics, 2025

    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  • MA in Political Science, 2018

    Ewha W. University

  • BA in English Language and Literature & Political Science, 2016

    Ewha W. University

Recent Publications

Do Young Gong, Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell, Shuyuan Shen, Yujeong Yang (2024). Money backfires: How Chinese investment fuels anti-China protests abroad. World Development, 178.

DOI

Yujeong Yang, Sanghoon Kim-Leffingwell, Shuyuan Shen, Do Young Gong (2023). Killing Protests with Kindness: Anti-China Protests and China's Public Diplomacy. International Studies Quarterly, 67 (4).

DOI

KyungWoo Kim, Hyeon-Suk Lyu, Do Young Gong (2020). Weeding out false information in disasters and emergencies: information recipients’ competency. International Review of Public Administration, 25 (4).

DOI

Working Papers

Bullets to Bargains: Wartime Coup Attempts in Civil War Management and Resolution
Wartime coup attempts have two contrasting impacts—they increase the chances of short-term conflict management but reduce the chances of long-term conflict resolution.
Do Young Gong
PDF
Failed Coup Attempts and Fading FDI in the Extractive Sector
Failed coup attempts reduce FDI inflows in extractive sector. The effect does not appear in other sectors.
Seung-Uk Huh, Do Young Gong
PDF
Play it Again? : Mandates and Missions in Successor UN Peace Operations
UN peacekeeping operations are conventionally treated as independent of one another for the purposes of analyses. In fact, many of them …
Paul Diehl, Do Young Gong
Peace Under the Influence? The Role of Illicit Drug Economies in Peace Processes and Rebel Splintering
Rebel groups that rely on drug-based financing are structurally less likely to pursue peace and more prone to fragmentation during negotiations, underscoring the unique challenges illicit economies pose to conflict resolution.
Myung Jung Kim, Do Young Gong
PDF

Teaching

Teaching Interests:

  • Introduction to International Relations, Political Violence, Civil War, Conflict Management and Resolution, Peace Studies, East Asian Politics, Middle East Politics, Quantitative Research in the Social Sciences, R programming for Social Science Research, Causal Inference, Mixed Methods Research, Survival Analysis

Courses Taught

  • Independent Instructor:

    • East Asian Political System
      • Central Michigan University | Spring 2025, Spring 2026 (Scheduled)
    • Quantitative Research Design in Political Science
      • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Summer 2025
    • Ordinary Least Squares in R
      • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Summer 2023, 2024

  • Teaching Assistant

    • The New Middle East (Prof. Avital Livny)
      • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Spring 2022
    • Comparative Politics in Developing Nations (Prof. Avital Livny)
      • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Fall 2021
    • American Foreign Policy (Prof. Nicholas Grossman)
      • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Fall 2022
    • Law and Representation (Prof. Wendy K. Tam)
      • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Fall 2020

  • Selected Student Comments

    • “Do Young is great at facilitating discussions and asking follow-up questions to provoke more thought in students.”
    • “Do Young creates an open environment for respectful discussion - I have always felt that I am heard, and whenever I have fumbled or got confused while speaking about my opinion, Do Young helps in clarifying and making the opinion a sort of more linear argument.”
    • “For Do Young, she did a great job of making the students more engaged in discussion than what was feasible in lecture. Likewise, she also enabled certain interactive games, like the usage of the non-anonymous dictator game to help us better understand the material.”
    • “I was the only one in the discussion to answer “no” to a question and explained my reasoning, and Do Young asked me extensive questions that were very specific to the reasoning I gave, and really pushed my intellectual boundaries.”

Contact