Thant Myint-U

Thant Myint-U is an award-winning writer, historian, conservationist, and international public servant. He is an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College at Cambridge University and a Senior Fellow of the United Nations Foundation. He was born in New York City and was educated at Harvard, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Cambridge University, where he completed his PhD in History in 1996.

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.

Thant Myint-U has served on three United Nations peacekeeping operations, in Cambodia (1992-3) and in the Balkans (1994-5 and 1996) and from 2000-2007 at the U.N. Secretariat in New York, including as the head of Policy Planning in the Department of Political Affairs and in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General.

From 2009-2021, he led political and economic reform efforts in Burma (Myanmar), as a member of the National Economic and Social Advisory Council and a Special Advisor on the peace process. During this time, he was also the Founding Chairman of the Yangon Heritage Trust, the Founding Chairman of U Thant House, and a Founding Partner of the Ava Advisory Group.

He is the author of five books: The Making of Modern Burma (2000), The River of Lost Footsteps (2007), Where China Meets India (2010), The Hidden History of Burma (2019), and Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World (2025). He has also written extensively for newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, the Financial Times, and Foreign Affairs.