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Book Talk | Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World
Historian Thant Myint‑U discusses the legacy of his grandfather U Thant, the UN’s first non-Western secretary-general.
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The UN’s first non-Western secretary-general, a soft-spoken Buddhist from rural Burma, once stood between the superpowers and nuclear annihilation, yet his story is largely untold.

In Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World ([link removed]) , historian Thant Myint‑U mines newly declassified archives to show how his grandfather U Thant steered the world through the Cuban Missile Crisis, mediated conflicts from the Congo to Kashmir, challenged Washington over Vietnam, and championed decolonization and environmental stewardship decades ahead of his time. Drawing vivid portraits of Cold War flashpoints, Myint‑U recasts U Thant’s legacy as a roadmap for principled multilateralism in an era of renewed great‑power rivalry.

In conversation with Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, Myint-U will explore U Thant’s battles against white supremacy in southern Africa, the rise of newly independent Asian and African voices at the UN, and what U Thant’s diplomacy can teach today’s gridlocked Security Council.

September 2025

30
12:00 PM ET
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Join us for a timely and important discussion with:

Thant Myint-U

Thant Myint-U is an award-winning writer, historian, conservationist,& international public servant. He is an honorary fellow of Trinity College at Cambridge University and a senior fellow of the UN Foundation. Thant Myint-U has served on three United Nations peacekeeping operations, in Cambodia, the Balkans, & the U.N. Secretariat in New York.

Trita Parsi (Moderator)

Trita Parsi is the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute. He was the 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order and was named by the Washingtonian Magazine as one of the 25 most influential voices on foreign policy in Washington D.C. in both 2021 and 2022. Parsi is an expert on the geopolitics of the Middle East.

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