Surin Pitsuwan

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Surin Pitsuwan (2010)

Surin Pitsuwan ( Thai สุรินทร์ พิศ สุวรรณ , born October 28, 1949 in Nakhon Si Thammarat ; † November 30, 2017 in Bangkok ) was a Thai political scientist and politician ( Democratic Party ). From 1997 to 2001 he was Foreign Minister of Thailand . From 2008 to 2012 he was Secretary General of ASEAN .

Academic career

Surin belonged to the Muslim minority in Thailand. His father was a teacher in an Islamic school. As part of an AFS exchange program, Surin went to school in the US state of Minnesota for a year . Surin studied political science , initially at Thammasat University in Bangkok, but switched to Claremont McKenna College in Claremont (California) , where he received his bachelor's degree in 1972. He continued his studies in political science and oriental studies at Harvard University , where he received his master's degree in 1974. From 1978 he taught political science at Thammasat University. In 1982 he received his PhD from Harvard University. In 1983/84 he took a break from teaching to be a Congressional Fellow with Geraldine Ferraro under the American Political Science Association's program . At the same time he taught Southeast Asian Politics at the American University in Washington.

Political career

Surin Pitsuwan was a member of the Democratic Party . In 1986 he was elected to the Thai parliament as a member of the Nakhon Si Thammarat Province . He has been re-elected eight times since then. He was first secretary to the President of Parliament Chuan Leekpai . From 1992 to 1995 he was Deputy Foreign Minister and from 1997 to 2001 Foreign Minister of Thailand in the governments of Chuan Leekpai. As Foreign Minister from 1999 to 2000, he was chairman of the ASEAN Council of Ministers and the ASEAN Regional Forum. In this role he worked for a peaceful solution to the crisis in East Timor in 1999 .

In 2005/06 he was a member of the National Reconciliation Commission, which worked out proposals for resolving the conflict in southern Thailand . After the military coup in September 2006 , he was appointed to the National Legislative Assembly.

Secretary General of ASEAN

On January 1, 2008, Surin Pitsuwan Ong Keng Yong succeeded him in the office of General Secretary of ASEAN. His term of office was five years. His successor is the Vietnamese Lê Lương Minh .

Memberships

Surin Pitsuwan was a member of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty from 1999 to 2001 . Since 2001 he has been a member of the Commission on Human Security at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the United Nations . Until 2004 he was also a member of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization of the International Labor Organization (ILO). He is also on the Advisory Board of the International Crisis Group , the Council on Foreign Relations and the Center for Islamic Studies at Oxford University . From 2002 to 2004 he was a member of the “Wise Men Group” set up by the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue , which moderated the peace talks between the Free Aceh movement and the Indonesian government.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Surin Pitsuwan dies at 68 , Bangkok Post , accessed December 7, 2017
  2. ↑ a b Surin Pitsuwan ( Memento from October 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ a b c d Dr. Surin Pitsuwan ( Memento from September 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

Note on Thai names : This article addresses people by their first name.
personal data
SURNAME Surin Pitsuwan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES สุรินทร์ พิศ สุวรรณ (ThS)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Thai political scientist and politician (Democratic Party)
DATE OF BIRTH October 28, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Nakhon Si Thammarat
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 2017
Place of death Bangkok