Circles and Squares

President

The Asia Institute

English Publications

한국어    기고문

日本語 著書

中文 文章

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Emanuel Pastreich serves as the president of the Asia Institute (asia-institute.org), a think tank that builds bridges between individuals in Asia and around the world to respond to the greatest challenges of our time: climate change, the impact of technological change on human society, the rapidly shifting nature of international relations, and the spread of a culture of anti-intellectualism.

The Asia Institute has offices in Washington D.C., Seoul (Republic of Korea), Bankok (Thailand), and Tokyo (Japan).

He is also independent candidate for President of the United States who ran officially as a candidate in the Green Party US until October, 2023. His collection of campaign speeches “I shall Fear No Evil” (September, 2020) has been translated into 13 languages and parts have been translated into another twenty languages.

He also serves as senior fellow at Global Peace Foundation, associate at the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University, and as a researcher at the academic council at CCG (Center for China and Globalization) in Beijing.

Pastreich has written articles about the environment, technology, globalization, international relations and business in Asia for such journals as Japan Focus, Korea Times, Foreign Policy in Focus & the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies and Global Asia. He writes frequently on East Asian politics, culture and international relations for Foreign Policy in Focus and for his blog, circlesandsquares.asia. He writes in Chinese primarily for Duowei and Guanchazhe, in Japanese for Huffington Post Japan and in Korean for Pressian, JoongAng Ilbo and “The Tomorrow.”

Pastreich started his work in international relations as Director of the policy think tank KORUS House (2005-2007) at the Korean Embassy in Washington D.C. in 2005. The seminar series that he ran at the Korean Embassy became a central location for the discussion of policy related to Northeast Asia for two years.

He also served as the editor-in-chief of the official online newspaper produced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “Dynamic Korea.” Under Pastreich’s leadership, Dynamic Korea expanded to be a critical source of objective analysis on contemporary issues in Korea, and across Asia, to a degree rare for a government publication.

Pastreich was appointed as advisor to Lee Wan-goo, the governor of Chungnam Province in the Republic of Korea in 2007 where he worked on international affairs with local government. He also did similar consulting work for Daejeon City, Gwangju City and Seoul.

He focused primarily on science and technology from 2009, as adviser to t he president of Daedeok Innopolis, Korea’s premier technology cluster located around Korea’s main science university KAIST.

He wrote extensively on science policy and his research projects together with the Korea Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology, the Korea Institute for Nuclear Safety, the Korea Institute for Geoscience and Materials, the Korea Research Institute for Standards and Science and Seoul National University. established him as a major figure in science policy.

He was co-founder with Professor Yang Jiwon of KAIST of the Daejeon Environment Forum, a regular meeting of experts in the environmental sciences in the Daedeok Cluster with officials of Daejeon City and other citizens groups for discussions about making the city more sustainable. He continues to work on environment and climate change at the Asia Institute today.

Pastreich started his career as an assistant professor of Japanese literature at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1998-2005). He also served as an associate professor at Kyunghee University (2011-2018). He has taught at Harvard University, George Washington University, and the Korean Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security.

Pastreich received a B.A. in Chinese literature from Yale University (1987), a Master’s Degree in comparative culture from the University of Tokyo (1992) and a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University (1997). He studied abroad at National Taiwan University (1984-85) and Korea University (1998).

He is fluent in English, Chinese, Japanese, French and Korean.

English books

• The Novels of Park Jiwon: Translations of Overlooked Worlds  (2011). Seoul: Seoul National University Press. ISBN 89-521-1176-1
• The Visible Mundane: Vernacular Chinese and the Emergence of a Literary Discourse on Popular Narrative in Edo Japan (2011). Seoul: Seoul National University Press. ISBN 89-521-1177-X
• Selected Publications of The Asia Institute (2013). Seoul: The Asia Institute Press. ISBN 978-89-969848-0-1
• Earth Management: A Dialogue on Ancient Korean Wisdom and Its Lessons for a New Earth (2016); co-authored with Lee Ilchi. Seoul: Best Life Media.
• I Shall Fear No Evil: Why we need a truly independent Candidate for President. (2021). New York, BookBaby, 2020. ISBN 978-1-64999-450-9
• Wrestling with Shadows (2022). New York: BookBaby. ASIN B09V8BF59D
• How to take down the Billionaires (2022). Seoul: The Asia Institute.

Korean books

• “Insaeng eun sokdo ga anira banghyang ida: Habeodeu baksa eui hanguk pyoryugi” (Life is a Matter of Direction, Not of Speed: Records of a Robinson Crusoe in Korea) (2011). Seoul: Nomad Books. ISBN 978-89-91794-56-6
• “Segye seokhak deul hanguk eui mirae reul mal hada” (Scholars of the World Speak Out About Korea’s Future) (2012). Seoul: Dasan Books. ISBN 978-89-6370-072-4
• “Han’gukin man moreu neun dareun daehan min’guk” (A Different Republic of Korea—About which only Koreans are Ignorant) (2013). Seoul: 21 Segi Books. ISBN 978-89-509-5108-5
• “Jigugyeongyoung Hongik e seo dap eul chatda” (Earth Management: Finding the Answer in the Hongik tradition (co-authored with Lee Ilchi) (2016). Seoul: Hanmun Hwa. ISBN 978-89-5699-286-0
• “Han’gukin man morratteon deo keun daehanminguk” (A Greater Korea that Korean’s did not know about) (2017). Seoul: Redwood Books. ISBN 979-11-87705-05-5
• “Korona sagi reur hyeongmyeong euro ggeutneja” (End COVID19 through revolution) (2022). Seoul: Narudo Books. ISBN 978-89-92973-28-1
• “Sagi tongil geuman! Jaebeol ui bukhan gaebal malgo, huimang eul chuneun geonguk euro” (No Fake Unification for Korea! A national founding that gives hope, not development of North Korea by conglomerates) (2023). Seoul: Narudo Books. ISBN 978-89-92973-29-8

Japanese books

• “Buki yo saraba: chikyu ondanka no kiki to Kenpo kyujo” (A Farewell to Arms: The Crisis of Climate Change and Article Nine of the Japanese Constitution) (2019). Osaka: Toho Publishers.
• “Watashi wa aku wo osorenai: 2020nen beikoku daitoryosen he no shutsuba sengen”
• “Korona tatari ni madou nihon” (Japan Jinxed by COVID19) (2023) Tokyo: Design Egg.

Chinese books

• “Kuahai qiuzhen: Hafo boshi lun zhongmei weilai” (Searching for the Truth on Both Sides of the Ocean) (2016). Hong Kong: Milky Way Publishers. ISBN 978-99965-49-42-7. (in Chinese)
• “Weilai zhongguo: guanyu renlei yu diqiu mingyun” (Future China: The Destiny of Humanity and the Earth) (2019). Hong Kong: Xiandai wenhua. ISBN 978-988-79567-4-7
• “Wo Juebu weiju xiee: Meiguode zongtong daxuan weihe yiding yaoyou zhenzhengde duli canxuanren canyu” (I Shall Fear No Evil: Why America’s Presidential Election must include a truly independent candidate) (2020). Beijing: The Asia Institute.
• “Ruhe tuifan fuhao jieceng: shiyi zhang xingdong gangyao” (How to overthrow the Billionaires: Eleven Chapters outlining action) (2022). Beijing: The Asia Institute.