Lim Haeran is a professor of political science and international relations at Seoul National University. Previously, she was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, a member of the policy advisory committee at the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, a National Security Council policy advisor, a foreign policy and unification advisor for the presidential transition committee, and vice-chairwoman of the Korean Political Science Association. 

Lim received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in political science from Ewha Womans University. She has a doctorate degree in political science from the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on comparative politics and the political economy of East Asia. Her major publications include Korea's Growth and Industrial Transformation, Cooperation and Community in East Asia: Beyond Statism (co-authorship), Free Market Economy and Integration of South Korean Society (co-authorship), “Transformation of Developmental States and Economic Reform in Korea”, “Crisis Democracy and Economic Reform in Korea,” and “The Order of International Political Economy in the Era of Great Transformation: Hegemony and the Transformation of Neoliberalism.”