Speaker Biographies

Michael Auslin studies U.S.–East Asian relations, Asian security, U.S.–Japanese relations, and Asia-Pacific multilateral organizations as a resident scholar at AEI. Prior to joining the Institute, Mr. Auslin was an associate professor of history and a senior research fellow at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University. He has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, a Marshall Memorial Fellow by the German Marshall Fund, and a Fulbright and Japan Foundation Scholar. His writings on Japan and Japanese diplomacy include the books Negotiating with Imperialism: The Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese Diplomacy (Harvard University Press, 2006) and Japan Society: Celebrating a Century, 1907–2007 (Japan Society, 2007).

Bruce E. Bechtol Jr. is a professor of international relations at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College and was an assistant professor of national security studies at the Air Command and Staff College from 2003 to 2005. He was an adjunct visiting professor at the Korea University Graduate School of International Studies from 2006 to 2007 and is an adjunct professor of diplomacy at Norwich University. Mr. Bechtol was an intelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1997 until 2003. He also served as the senior analyst for Northeast Asia in the Intelligence Directorate (J2) of the Joint Staff in the Pentagon. He served in active duty for twenty years in the U.S. Marine Corps. His books include Red Rogue: The Persistent Challenge of North Korea (Potomac Books, 2007) and The Quest for a Unified Korea: Strategies for the Cultural and Interagency Process, (Marine Corps University Foundation, 2007). Mr. Bechtol writes widely on Korean security issues, contributing chapters to a number of edited volumes and contributing articles to the International Journal of Korean Studies, Pacific Focus, the Korea Observer, East Asian Review, the Air and Space Power Journal, the International Journal of Korean Unification Studies, Korean Quarterly, and other journals. Formerly the editor of the Defense Intelligence Journal, he currently sits on the editorial review board of the East Asian Review. Mr. Bechtol is on the boards of the International Council on Korean Studies and the Council on U.S.-Korean Security Studies. 

Nicholas Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at AEI and is a senior adviser to the National Bureau of Asian Research in Seattle. He serves on the advisory board of the Korea Economic Institute of America and is a founding member of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. Mr. Eberstadt is regularly consulted by governmental and international organizations, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the World Bank. He has published over three hundred studies and articles in scholarly and popular journals, mainly on topics in demography, international development, and East Asian security. His dozen-plus books and monographs include The Poverty of Communism (Transaction, 1988), The Tyranny of Numbers (AEI Press, 1995), The End of North Korea (AEI Press, 1999), Korea’s Future and the Great Power (National Bureau of Asian Research, 2001), The North Korean Economy: Between Crisis and Catastrophe (Transaction, 2007), and, most recently, Europe’s Coming Demographic Challenge: Unlocking the Value of Health (AEI Press, 2007).

Marcus Noland has been a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics since 1985, where he has researched the political economy of U.S. trade policy and the Asian financial crisis, among other issues. He has written extensively on the economies of Japan, South Korea, and China and on the problems of North Korea and the prospects for Korean unification. Mr. Noland was a senior economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and has held research or teaching positions at Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Southern California, Tokyo University, Saitama University, the University of Ghana, the Korea Development Institute, and the East-West Center. Mr. Noland’s books include Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform (Columbia University Press, 2007), Korea after Kim Jong-il (Peterson Institute, 2004), Industrial Policy in an Era of Globalization: Lessons From Asia (Peterson Institute, 2003), Avoiding the Apocalypse: The Future of the Two Koreas (Peterson Institute, 2000), Economic Integration of the Korean Peninsula (Peterson Institute, 1998), Global Economic Effects of the Asian Currency Devaluations (Peterson Institute, 1998), and Pacific Basin Developing Countries: Prospects for the Future (Peterson Institute, 1990). He has also written many scholarly articles on international economics, U.S. trade policy, and the economies of the Asia-Pacific region. Mr. Noland has been an occasional consultant to organizations such as the World Bank and the National Intelligence Council and has testified before Congress on numerous occasions.

Charles L. “Jack” Pritchard is the president of the Korea Economic Institute (KEI). Prior to joining KEI, he was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution from September 2003 until February 2006. He is the author of Failed Diplomacy: The Tragic Story of How North Korea Got the Bomb (Brookings Institution Press, 2007). Ambassador Pritchard served as special envoy for negotiations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and as the U.S. representative to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization from April 2001 to September 2003. Previously, he served as special assistant to the president for national security affairs and senior director for Asian affairs in the administration of Bill Clinton. During the Clinton administration, Ambassador Pritchard was also the director of Asian affairs at the National Security Council and deputy chief negotiator for the Four Party Peace Talks, which were aimed at reducing the tensions on the Korean Peninsula. He accompanied then–secretary of state Madeleine Albright to North Korea for meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

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