Everyone is invited to join the Asia Institute and to make proposals regarding our direction and our focus. We are not in the business of dispensing wisdom from an “advanced” West to a “developing” Asia. We are leading a balanced and equal dialog about the future of humanity the includes everyone.
The Asia Institute actively seeks out the opinions and the support of individuals and institutions across Asia on issues like climate change, the rapid evolution of technology and the changing nature of international relations in an age of social networks and integrated manufacturing and logistics.
Over the last twelve years the Asia Institute has created a new space wherein honest discussion and mutually beneficial research can take place. Our work has included projects with Tsukuba university and its 3E Forum in Tsukuba, Japan, the Korea Science and Technology Policy Institute, the Japan National Institute of Environmental Studies, Georgia Tech, the Korea Research Institute for Biosciences and Biotechnology, the National Nanofabrication Center, KAIST, Seoul National University’s Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology, Ecocity Builders, the Korea Institute of Geosciences and Materials, Korea Research Institute for Standards and Science, Korea Federation of Women’s Science and Technology Associations, Foreign Policy in Focus, the P2P Foundation and the International Centre for Earth Simulation. our conferences, seminars, policy reports, research papers, articles have appeared in multiple languages.
We launched the Asia Institute in 2007 in response to the need for a space for stakeholders across Asia to come together and exchange opinions about the long-term implications of social and technological change in this age of unprecedented integration.
We felt that Asia desperately need sophisticated and robust fabric of personal relations and collaboration in research, governance and policy to complement this integration in terms of logistics and energy supplies.
The Asia Institute organized the Daejeon meeting (12th plenary) of the Limited Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone for Northeast Asia (LNWFZ-NEA) in October, 2008, the culmination of a comprehensive effort to create a secure East Asia through frank discussions between specialists and government officials. the LNWFZ-NEA meeting brought together scholars, ambassadors and generals from around the world for a frank discussion of a concrete and practical proposal to limit nuclear weapons in East Asia. Attendees included former us assistant secretary of state Robert Gallucci.
Addressing the environmental crisis is a priority at the Asia Institute. We launched the Daejeon Environment Forum in 2008 that brought together researchers from across Korea’s Daedeok Research Cluster to discuss how their efforts can be combined to develop robust and sustainable technologies. Daejeon Metropolitan City officially endorsed the Daejeon Environment Forum and we successfully ran the program jointly for two years. The Daejeon Environment Forum established exchanges with the cities of Tsukuba, Shenzhen and Palo Alto for collaboration in the development of environmental technologies.
The Asia Institute collaborated with Tsukuba university to establish the international 3E (environment, energy, economy) forum and held forums in Daejeon (May, 2009) and Shenzhen (July, 2009) that brought together experts from China, Japan and Korea. A 3E international café was held in Korea in August 2009 that brought together youth from Japan, China, Korea and other nations to discuss climate change and the potential for global cooperation.
The Asia Institute promotes cooperation in science and technology between the nations of Asia, leading the negotiations for an MOU for cooperation in nanofabrication between Korea’s National Nanofabrication Center (one of the world’s leading research facilities) and the Indian Nano Consortium.
The Asia Institute has undertaken a series of large-scale research projects with major Korean research institutes. the major projects are as follows:
Survey of global think tanks for the Future Consensus Institute in 2018.
Study of science diplomacy for Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies in 2018.
A study of the “hell chosun” phenomenon with the Korean Economic Research Institute in 2017.
A study of the global collaboration in biomedicine for Seoul National University and a study on Korea’s leadership role with regards to women in science for WISET (Women in Science, Engineering and Technology) in 2012-2013.
A study of paradigms for international collaboration between the United States and Korea for Seoul National University’s AICT (Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology) in 2012.
Two research projects on technology convergence on a global scale for KRISS (Korea Research Institute for Standards and Science) in 2012.
A study of nuclear power in Southeast Asia with KINS (Korea Institute for Nuclear Safety) in 2011.
A study of carbon-capture technology and its potential for KIGAM (Korea Institute for Geoscience and Materials) in 2010.
Two studies of international collaboration strategies for biotechnology for KRIBB (Korea Research Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology) in 2008-2009.
The Asia Institute launched the convergence technology program in July 2010 in response to a request from the Korea Industry Convergence Association. We launched the Global Convergence Forum together with the Korea Research Institute for Standards and Science in December, 2010 and we have held numerous seminars and published several major papers. We undertook a study of international collaboration in convergence technology together with Seoul National University’s advanced institutes of convergence technology that included close collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
The Asia Institute supports an on-going discussion about the conditions for unification of the Korean Peninsula, bringing together experts from international relations, security and the humanities for a series of seminars on the economic, social and security implications of Korean unification for East Asia.
We held a series of seminars on information and communication technologies (ICT) that produced an Asia Institute white paper on the future of information and of global governance. The resulting proposal for a “constitution of information” was summarized in an frequently cited article in the Huffington Post and also presented at a conference sponsored by the Korean Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning that featured me and the world-renowned expert on singularity, Ray Kurzweil. More recently, the Asia Institute has researched how social networks can become the platform for next-generation global governance.
The environmental crisis posed by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was the focus of a research project involving over thirty experts and multiple seminars involving both those on location in Japan and concerned citizens around the world. As a part of the project, an article was published by the Foreign Policy in Focus think tank which was one of the top-ten articles for 2013 and further recommendations were elaborated in a white paper released in 2014.
Most recently, the Asia Institute has worked on a complete revision of the concept of security in East Asia that makes climate change the primary focus.
We invite you to join us as we expand our efforts throughout the region.
Emanuel Pastreich
President
The Asia Institute