CURRICULUM VITAE

Dr. Anuson Chinvanno

          Dr. Anuson Chinvanno is a Sinologist by training and a diplomat by career. He studied Modern Chinese at Leeds University from 1979 to 1983 and continued his post-graduate study in International Relations at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, receiving a D. Phil. in August 1988. His thesis was published by Macmillan (now Palgrave) in 1992 under the title “Thailand’s Policies towards China, 1949-1954”.

          Dr. Anuson started working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in September 1988 and rose through the ranks relatively quickly, attaining his first senior post of Consul-General to Shanghai in 2004. For 5 years between 2006-2010, he was Director-General of 2 major departments in the Ministry, namely the Department of East Asian Affairs (2006-2009) and the Department of International Organizations (2009-2010), during which time he witnessed and had “close encounters” with the turmoil of domestic politics. He was appointed Thailand’s Ambassador to Vietnam in late 2010 and served in Hanoi from 2011-2013.

          In late 2013, Dr. Anuson decided to retire early and left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 1 January 2014, almost 5 years before his mandatory retirement. In August 2014, he started what he thought would be his second career at Rangsit University, where he was appointed Director of the newly established Chinese-Thai Institute. But before his academic career could take off, another government job beckoned. The new Government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha decided in October 2014 to appoint him Deputy Secretary-General to the Prime Minister. Dr. Anuson’s tenure at the PM’s Office lasted until July 2019. He returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to head the revitalised International Studies Center (ISC) from 1 August 2019.

          Apart from his academic training and interest in the study of modern China, Dr. Anuson also has extensive experience in multilateral diplomacy. He served at Thailand’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York as a junior diplomat between 1992-1995. One career highlight during his term in New York was in 1993 when he was elected Rapporteur of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) of UNGA48. He also served in the Department of International Organizations twice, in 1996-2000 and in 2009-2010 as Director-General of the Department and Thailand’s Permanent Representative to ESCAP. Between 1997-99, Dr. Anuson was also Thailand’s delegate on the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC), serving as one of the Vice Chairmen during its 37th Session in 1997.

          Another area of multilateral negotiations in which he has been extensively involved is climate change. In 2009 he attended COP15 in Copenhagen and several international meetings leading to COP16 in Cancun in 2010. In 2015 Dr. Anuson was appointed an Advisory Member of the National Committee on Climate Change Policy and has attended every COP and SB sessions, from COP21 in Paris in 2015 to COP25 in Madrid in 2019, as Special Advisor to the Thai delegation. Moreover, while working at the Department of International Organizations, he was also involved in the activities of the United Nations Association of Thailand, serving at various times as a member of the Executive Committee (1996-1997), Secretary-General (1997-1998) and Vice President (2009-2010).

          In addition to his book, his paper “Brief Encounter: Sino-Thai Rapprochement After Bandung, 1955-1957” was published by the ISC in 1992 under its Study Paper series. Dr. Anuson is also the editor of the book “Thai Diplomacy: in conversation with Tej Bunnag”, published by ISC in 2021. He has, over the years, contributed articles to Saranrom Journal, Thammasat’s Journal of East Asian Studies, the Bangkok Post, and Rangsit Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, and ISC’s e-publication “Points of View”. He has been a regular guest speaker at Thammasat University’s Faculty of Political Science, Rangsit University’s Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies (IDIS), and the Devawongse Varopakarn Institute of Foreign Affairs (DVIFA). Dr. Anuson also served as a member of the Executive Committee of Thammasat University’s Faculty of Political Science (2015-2018) and the Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University (2022-2023).