Emanuel Pastreich (born October 16, 1964) is an American professor, director, andpolyglot who is an international relations expert and serves as the president of the Asia Institute,[1] a think tank with offices in Washington DC, Tokyo, Seoul and Hanoi.[2]
Pastreich was briefly an independent candidate for president of the United States 2020.[3] In September 2023, Pastreich officially becamea candidate for the Green Party’s presidential nomination in September, 2024[4][5][6] but had to abandon the campaign for the Green nomination because of a failure to gain financial support within the party.[7][8] However, he has continued his candidacy as anIndependent.[9] He currently serves as director of the Center for Truth Politics atGreen Liberty.[10] Trained as a scholar of Asian studies, Pastreich writes on both East Asian classical literature[11][12][13][14] and current issues in international relations and technology in multiple languages.[15][16][17][18]
He is fluent in Chinese,Japanese, andKorean and has stressed the importance of Asia for the United States in his political writings.
He began his studies atYale University, graduating with a B.A. in Chinese in 1987.[17] He studied abroad atNational Taiwan University in 1985.[18]Pastreich obtained an M.A. in comparative literature at theUniversity of Tokyo in 1991,[19] where he wrote the master's dissertation entirely in Japanese. He then received a Ph.D. in East Asian studies fromHarvard University in 1998.[20]
Pastreich is president of The Asia Institute, a think tank that conducts research on the intersection of international relations, the environment[21][22][23] and technology inEast Asia.[13]
Pastreich’s close relations with South Korea began after he was dismissed in 2004 from his position as assistant professor at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and was offered a position at the S. Korean embassy in Washington DC. He served as the director of the KORUS House (2005-2007), a think tank for international relations at the embassy, and as the editor-in-chief ofDynamic Korea, a journal of the Korean Foreign Ministry that introduces Korean culture and society.[28][29][30]
His best-known book isI Shall Fear No Evil (2020)[31] which consists of a series of major speeches from his 2020 presidential campaign. The speeches touch on economic, security and social problems within the context of America’s historical evolution, drawing on wisdom gathered from Western and Eastern political philosophy to address current social contradictions.His other writings in English include the booksThe Novels of Park Jiwon: Translations of Overlooked Worlds,[32] a collection of the novels of a Korean pre-modern author,The Visible Vernacular: Vernacular Chinese and the Emergence of a Literary Discourse on Popular Narrative in Edo Japan , a study of the reception of Chinese vernacular literature in Japan,Earth Management: A Dialogue on Ancient Korean Wisdom and its Lessons for a New Earth,[33] and his autobiographical novelWrestling with Shadows.[34]
His eight books in Korean includeLife is a Matter of Direction, not Speed: A Robinson Crusoe in Korea, a description of his experiences living in Korea;Scholars of the World Speak out About Korea's Future,[35] a series of interviews with leading scholars such asFrancis Fukuyama,Larry Wilkerson andNoam Chomsky about contemporary Korea;[13]A Republic of Korea that Koreans do not understand, an assessment of Korea’s native traditions and their value that was praised by former President Park Geun-hye and designated as a national security book by the Korean Government;No Fake Unification, a blistering critique of plans to push through a unification of the Korean Peninsula led by multinational corporations; andEarth Management: Finding the Answer in the Hongik Tradition, a consideration of the importance of traditional culture in an age of ecological crisis.[36]
His books in Japanese includeA Farewell to Arms, a call for a radical revision of security policy in light of the destruction of the environment andJapan jinxed by COVID-19, a brutal assessment of the new political environment for Japan after the onset of COVID-19.[37]
Pastreich was born in 1964 to symphony managerPeter Pastreich and painter Marie Louise Rouff. He has three siblings, includingMichael Pastreich, Anna Schlagel, and Milena Pastreich. Pastreich has two children. His wife of twenty-five years, Seung-Eun Yi Pastreich, died in 2022.[38]
“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.ISBN978-89-91794-56-6
“Segye seokhak deul hanguk eui mirae reul mal hada” (Scholars of the World Speak Out About Korea's Future) (2012). Seoul: Dasan Books.ISBN978-89-6370-072-4
“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.ISBN978-89-509-5108-5
“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.ISBN978-89-5699-286-0
“Han'gukin man morratteon deo keun daehanminguk” (A Greater Korea that Korean’s did not know about) (2017). Seoul: Redwood Books.ISBN979-11-87705-05-5
“Korona sagi reur hyeongmyeong euro ggeutneja” (End COVID19 through revolution) (2022). Seoul: Narudo Books.ISBN978-89-92973-28-1
(No Fake Unification for Korea! A national founding that gives hope, not development of North Korea by conglomerates) (2023). Seoul: Narudo Books.ISBN978-89-92973-29-8
“Buki yo saraba: chikyu ondanka no kiki to Kenpo kyujo”[37] (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”[39]
“Korona tatari ni madou nihon”[40] (Japan Jinxed by COVID19) (2023) Tokyo: Design Egg.
“Kuahai qiuzhen: Hafo boshi lun zhongmei weilai” (Searching for the Truth on Both Sides of the Ocean) (2016). Hong Kong: Milky Way Publishers.ISBN978-99965-49-42-7. (in Chinese)
“Weilai zhongguo: guanyu renlei yu diqiu mingyun” (Future China: The Destiny of Humanity and the Earth) (2019). Hong Kong: Xiandai wenhua.ISBN978-988-79567-4-7
“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.
^Shin, Gi-wook; Robinson, Michael (2001).Colonial Modernity in Korea. p. 441.ISBN0-674-00594-5.See Emanuel Pastreich, "The Reception of Chinese Vernacular Narrative in Korea and Japan" (PhD diss., Harvard University, 1997), pp. 49-52
^Pastreich, Emanuel; Feffer, John (30 May 2013).太平洋への転換から緑の革命へ： 気候変化を最大脅威と見なして [From Pacific Pivot to Green Revolution] (in Japanese). Huffington Post. Retrieved3 June 2013.
