Reimagining the United Nations - past, present, and future
Thursday 5 October 2023, 10.00-11.30
DIIS ∙ Danish Institute for International Studies
Gammel Kalkbrænderi Vej 51A
2100 Copenhagen
Since the invasion of Ukraine, there has been a tendency to think that the United Nations is bound to return to a sort of Cold War era paralysis. To Thant Myint-U, internationally recognized historian and former UN diplomat, this is a fundamental misreading of history. A new reading of the UN's past is necessary to understand its future potential.
In this seminar Thant Myint-U will elaborate on this recovered history and explore what this means for Denmark as a possible Member of the Security Council (2025 - 2026) and the future of the UN Secretary-Generalship.
Thant Myint-U will also briefly focus on the present conflict in Myanmar and the role of the International Community, among others, the UN, in trying to find solutions to the crisis.
Thant Myint-U is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Christ's College, Cambridge and United Nations Special Adviser on Humanitarian Diplomacy and has conducted extensive research about the UN's past and will briefly elaborate on how he believes that, e.g., The Congo crisis, Cuba, the Vietnam War, the Six Day War, can be analyzed in a very different way through the lens of the UN and the Global South during the Cold War.
Thant Myint-U is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Christ's College, Cambridge and United Nations Special Adviser on Humanitarian Diplomacy.He is the grandson of former UN Secretary General U Thant and an internationally recognized historian.
He has served on three United Nations peacekeeping operations, in Cambodia (United Nations Transition Authority in Cambodia 1992-3) and in the former Yugoslavia (United Nations Protection Force 1994-5 and United Nations Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina 1996) as well as at the UN Secretariat in New York.
Thant Myint-U has held visiting fellowships at Harvard, Cambridge and the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
In 2012 Thant Myint-U was appointed a member of the President of Myanmar's National Economic and Social Advisory Council and at that time also established the Yangon Heritage Trust to protect the city's architectural heritage and encourage new ideas in urban planning.
Thant Myint-U is the author of four books: The Making of Modern Burma (2000), the River of Lost Footsteps (2006), Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia (2011) , and The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century (2019).
John Nielsen, Senior Analyst, Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Justine Chambers, Postdoc, Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Programme
10.00-10.05 Introduction, John Nielsen
10.05-10.45 Reimagining the United Nations (past, present, and future), Thant Myint-U
10.45-11.30 Q&A, moderated by Justine Chambers and John Nielsen
Practical information
The seminar will be held in English. Participation is free of charge but registration is required via our registration form.
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