Ambassador Harry Harris has deeply impressed me repeatedly with his ability to rise above petty politics and to advocate for a strong Korea-US alliance while expanding cooperation in security issues with India, Australia, and Japan. His love and support for India -USA naval cooperation to deter Chinese expansion into the Indian ocean are well known to all.
Although some worried that his military background might be a disadvantage in this fluid period, that intimate knowledge has served him well in the difficult negotiations over Seoul’s contributions to offset the costs of stationing US troops. Under his superior leadership USA- Korea has emerged stronger despite extreme pressure and stress in recent times.
Ambassador Harris was professional and focused and he managed to rise above the unfair attacks on him for his Japanese heritage. He earned respect for his professionalism.
The difficult question now is who the best person will be to serve as the next Ambassador, especially now that the political turmoil between the political parties in the United States has grown so stark as to make any appointment potentially controversial.
The choice is a difficult one and given the stakes for the Republic of Korea in an age of growing uncertainty; it is imperative that the new administration select, boldly, a person who understands Korea, East Asia, and the United States and who has the courage and moral convictions to play a transformative role in bringing the US-Korea Alliance into the 21st century.
Although I do not know who the Biden team may be considering, my extensive conversations with Koreans makes it clear that there is only one American who has played a central role in Korean politics, diplomacy, education, and culture, who has been active in both the Washington and Seoul, who is focused on emerging threats like climate change and the impact of technology on society. That American has intentionally kept his profile low so as to be effective, but that is precisely why his very presence at organizations like the Korea-America Association brings to Korea harmony and reconciliation. His reputation is based on his actions, not his affiliations, and therefore he feels no need to fall back on institutional trappings.
I am referring to Emanuel Pastreich, a man whose Korean name Lee Manyeol is familiar to just about everyone working in policy from his writings for Korea’s most central newspapers (Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo, Korea Times and Korea IT Times) over the last 10 years.
Pastreich serves as the president of the Asia Institute an organization dedicated to promoting cooperation between the United States and East Asia with offices in Washington, Seoul, Hanoi, and Tokyo. He is also director-general at the Institute of the Future Urban Environment where he has promoted cooperation on environmental issues with local government in Korea and around the world.
I have worked with him on hundreds of seminars and policy papers and I know intimately both his intellectual rigor and his commitment to excellence.
Pastreich spent last year in Washington D.C., engaged in a constructive and scientific discussion about the future of the US role in Asia. His seminar in Washington D.C. last December on climate change and security with Alice Hill of the Council on Foreign Relations, Larry Wilkerson (former chief of staff to Colin Powell), and John Feffer (director of Foreign Policy in Focus) attracted tremendous attention.
I am struck by how effective Pastreich can be at bringing a broad network of leaders in politics, diplomacy, academics, and journalism together to address a problem, not just from Washington D.C. and but also from Seoul, Tokyo, Hanoi, New Delhi, and Beijing.
He had the vision to establish with me an India program eleven years ago—long before India was a popular topic in Seoul. It is that vision thing that sets him apart from the crowd—and that is precisely what we need from an ambassador.
Pastreich writes prolifically not only in English but also in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese and his writings delve into subtle policy issues within each country that most Americans simply do not have the patience to understand.
He has become a major figure in policy because he can discuss complex issues in security and economics, and write about them in Korean, Chinese, and Japanese, and has published numerous books in those three languages.
His recent Youtube broadcasts with Kim Daehyun, a rising political star, have shown how Pastreich can debate the details of Korean policy in Korean in real-time without any assistance.
Above all, Pastreich’s commitment to American leadership in Asia is long-term and rooted not in budgets or media exposure, but in vision and ethical commitment.
That is why Korean policymakers know instinctively that he will always level with them.
Pastreich’s background
Like Ambassador Harris, Pastreich was born in Tennessee and established himself in the Midwest, starting as a professor of Japanese studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1998.
But behind his unassuming Midwestern demeanor one finds an intellectual rigor and passion that is unparalleled. With a B.A. in Chinese from Yale, an M.A. in literature from the University of Tokyo (where he completed all coursework in Japanese), and a Ph.D. from Harvard, he has a profound understanding of Korea’s history and culture and understands the region in terms of a long historical process.
Pastreich served as an advisor to the Korean Embassy during the most difficult days of the President Roh Moohyun administration (2005-2007), working to resolve differences with the Bush administration.
He was then a special assistant to Governor Wan-gu Lee of Chungnam Province (the first time ever for Americans to play such a role in local government) handling foreign investment, education, tourism, and international exchanges.
Pastreich served as a co-chairman of the Daejeon Green Growth Forum during the President Lee Myungbaek administration and helped multiple science institutes to develop close research collaborations with peers in the United States and in Japan.
Pastreich’s book “The Republic of Korea that Koreans do not know” was praised by President Park Geun-hye and then designated as a national security book by the Ministry of Defense and made required reading for new officers.
He has been back in Seoul for the last few months hard at work, just off the stage, trying to put out fires and to articulate a powerful vision for a continued US role in Asia.
Why now?
We need a true leader, not a bureaucrat or a political player hoping to make money from consulting after his retirement, to address the crisis brewing on the Korean Peninsula today.
We need a period of true healing after the trauma of the 2020 presidential election with an ambassador who is clearly not married to either the Republican or the Democratic party.
Above all, we must be sure that the Korean Peninsula does not become the object of a political tug of war in Washington or the target of geopolitical battles in East Asia.
Emanuel has been independent of political parties in Korea and the United States—and that is not just rhetoric.
He ran a campaign for president this year as an independent and he gave 15 speeches on social and political issues in the United States that are unparalleled in their perspicacity and that recall the best of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy (also of the Harvard tradition).
His book “I Shall Fear no Evil” has deeply impressed, and inspired, America’s best and brightest and presented a glimmer of hope to Americans who feared that politics in the United States had died.
I am convinced that Pastreich’s understated style, his deep grasp of Korean culture and society and his ethical commitment to good governance and to peace, makes him by far the best candidate for Ambassador at this historical moment. It is time we have USA ambassador in Seoul who knows Korea inside out. Too much is at stake.
