Nicholas Eberstadt, a long-standing participant in hawkish U.S. advocacy groups dating back to the
early 1980s, is an Asia scholar and demographer associated with the American
Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Project
for the New American Century (PNAC). Eberstadt often writes on economic and demographic issues,
including infant mortality, poverty, foreign aid, and health disparities. He also serves, along with John
Bolton and Danielle Pletka, as one of
AEI's in-house hawks on North Korea, authoring numerous essays in recent years arguing against diplomatic
negotiations with Pyongyang.
In 1990, Eberstadt authored an op-ed piece, "The Coming Collapse of North Korea," for which
he was criticized because of its prognostications regarding the survivability of the regime in Pyongyang
("The North Korean Economy: Between Crisis and Catastrophe," AEI event, April 17, 2007).
Eberstadt now argues that the Pyongyang government has managed to sustain itself through financial activity
including the drug trade, counterfeiting of U.S. dollars, and even U.S. economic support via Western
countries' "engagement policies" ("Toward a Peaceful Resolution with North Korea: Crafting
a New International Engagement Framework," AEI event, February 12, 2004).
Eberstadt has also written for the neoconservative Weekly
Standard, edited by Fred Barnes and William
Kristol, a co-founder of PNAC. In a November 2004 memo addressed to "opinion leaders" and
titled, "Toward Regime Change in North Korea," Kristol enthusiastically endorsed key points
from a Weekly Standard article penned by Eberstadt. Kristol praised Eberstadt for emphasizing
the need to "[m]ake clear that regime change in North Korea and reunification of the Korean peninsula
are our ultimate policy goals" (PNAC, November 22, 2004 ).
Although at times critical of regime change strategies for North Korea, Eberstadt disparaged the ongoing
six-party diplomatic talks as concessionist and flawed. In an AEI paper published in September 2005,
Eberstadt argued that North Korea's signing of a denuclearization policy, under pressure from the five
countries' diplomacy, was in fact a front for Pyongyang to continue to develop nuclear weapons under
the guise of energy development (see "North Korea Triumphs Again in Diplomacy," AEI Online/On
the Issues, September 30, 2005) .
Eberstadt has served on the Executive Committee of the Committee
on the Present Danger, a lobbying group originally formed in the 1950s to push the United States
to aggressively challenge the Soviet Union. The Committee re-established itself in 2004 to promote hardline
policies in the "war on terror." Eberstadt was also a founding member of the anti-communist Committee
for the Free World, formed in 1980, and he remained a member until the organization dissolved in
1991 after the fall of the Berlin Wall (see Who's Who).
Eberstadt has signed various PNAC advocacy letters, including a letter dated September 20, 2001 that
argued that deposing Saddam Hussein, even if he was not involved in the 9/11 attacks, was key to winning
the "war on terror."
In an April 2002 PNAC "Letter to President Bush on Israel, Arafat, and the War on Terrorism," Eberstadt
joined the company of various other neoconservatives to thank George W. Bush for his support of Israel
and to ask him to "accelerate plans for removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq."
"Israel's fight against terrorism is our fight," the letter states. "If we do not move
against Saddam Hussein and his regime, the damage our Israeli friends and we have suffered until now
may someday appear but a prelude to much greater horrors" (PNAC, "Letter to President Bush
on Israel, Arafat, and the War on Terrorism").
At the American Enterprise Institute, where he is the Henry Wendt Scholar in Political Economy, Eberstadt's
research on demography has included the assertion that the U.S. birth rate's lead over Europe's can be
attributed to the country's " greater optimism, greater patriotism, and stronger religious values" (Washington
Post, May 24, 2006).
Eberstadt spoke at an October 2006 AEI event on "Religion and the American Future." The
event's description stated, "The meek, it has been said, shall inherit the earth—but increasingly
it appears that the future belongs not so much to the meek as to the devout. As fertility rates plummet
across the globe, religious believers seem to be uniquely protected against the 21st century's looming
demographic implosion" ("Religion and the American Future").
In March 2006, the Bush administration recognized Eberstadt by naming him as a member of the President's
Commission on Bioethics. Despite his background in demographics and political economy, Eberstadt has
also been described as a " defense expert" by the State Department (Elizabeth Kelleher, "U.S.
Military Humanitarian Efforts Planned for 99 Nations," July 16, 2006). He has also been a commissioner
on the U.S. Commission for Helping to Enhance the Livelihood of People since 2005.
Eberstadt's books include The End of North Korea (1999), The North Korean Economy: Between
Crisis and Catastrophe (2006), and Europe's Coming Demographic Challenge (2007).
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Affiliations
American Enterprise Institute: Scholar
American Refugee Committee: Former Member, Board of Directors
Center for Population and Developmental Studies, Harvard University: Visiting Fellow, 1980- ; Member, 2002-
Committee on the Present Danger: Former Member, Executive Committee
Council on Foreign Relations: Member
Environmental Literary Council: Member
French-American Foundation: American Alumni, 1981 and 1989
Foreign Policy Research Institute: Contributor, Speaker
Institute for Contemporary Studies: Former Vice President
National Bureau of Asian Research: Member, Board of Advisers
Project for the New American Century: Signatory
RAND: Transition 2001 Panel
Rockefeller Foundation: Visiting Research Fellow, 1979-1980
U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea: Member, Board of Directors
Government Service
U.S. Commission for Helping to Enhance the Livelihood of People: Member
Board of Scientific Counsellors, National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Member, 2003-
State Department: Consultant
Agency for International Development: Consultant
World Bank: Consultant
President's Council on Bioethics: Member, 2006-
U.S. Bureau of Census: Consultant
Education
Harvard University: A.B., Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government
Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government: M.P.A.
London School of Economics: M.Sc.
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