About Author
Thant Myint-U is an award winning writer, historian, conservationist, and former advisor to the President of Myanmar. thantmyintu.com He was named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the "100 Leading Global Thinkers" of 2013 and by Prospect Magazine as one of 50 "World Thinkers" of 2014. In June 2015 he was awarded the "Fukuoka Grand Prize", Japan's highest cultural prize and in May 2018 the "Padma Shri", one of India's highest civilian honours. He is the Founder and Chairman of the Yangon Heritage Trust, the Founder and Chairman of U Thant House, a Founding Partner of the Ava Advisory Group, and from 2012-2016 was a member of the (Myanmar) National Economic and Social Advisory Council. As a Special Advisor for the peace process he was part of the team that led negotiations towards the 2015 "Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement" between the Myanmar government and ethnic-minority insurgent armies. Thant Myint-U is a Myanmar national but born in New York City to Burmese parents in 1966, 'returning' to Burma for the first time when he was eight years old. He was educated at Harvard and Cambridge University, where he completed his PhD in history in 1996. He has served on three United Nations peacekeeping operations, in Cambodia and in the former Yugoslavia, as well as six years with the UN Secretariat in NY, including as the head of policy planning in the Department of Political Affairs. In 2004-5 he was the Principal Officer in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General responsible for the 2005 World Summit. Thant Myint-U taught modern history for several years as a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and is the author of three books, The Making of Modern Burma, The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma, and, most recently, Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia, which was short-listed for the Asia Society's Bernard Schwartz Book Award in 2012. thantmyintu.com Dr Thant Myint-U is an award-winning writer, historian, and international public servant. He was educated at Harvard and Cambridge University, where, after completing his PhD he taught history as a Fellow of Trinity College (1996-1999). He has served on three United Nations peacekeeping operations, in Cambodia (1992-3) and the former Yugoslavia (1994-5) as well as at the UN Secretariat in NY (2000-2006), including as Chief of Policy Planning in the Deparment of Political Affairs and Senior Office in the Executive Office of the Secretary General. From 2008-2021 he worked in Myanmar, as adviser to the president and special adviser on the peace process (2011-2015), founder and chairman of the Yangon Heritage Trust, and chairman of U Thant House. He is the author of four critically acclaimed books on Burmese and Asian history. He is currently writing a new book: "Another Tomorrow: U Thant, the United Nations, and the Untold Story of the 1960s". is also the author of numerous articles, including for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, the New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs. In 2013 he was named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the "100 Leading Global Thinkers" of the year and in April 2014 by Prospect Magazine's as one of 50 "World Thinkers". He is a recipient of the Fukuoka Grand Prize from the government of Japan (2015) and the Padma Shri award from the President of India (2018). From 2021-2022 he was Visiting Fellow Commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge. He is currently a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Christ's College, Cambridge. He is also United Nations Special Adviser on Humanitarian Diplomacy and a senior adviser to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.