Surakiart Sathirathai

Surakiart Sathirathai (; ; born June 7, 1958, Bangkok) is a Thai politician who, until September 19, 2006, a Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand overseeing Foreign Affairs, Education and Culture. He is former President of the Asian Society of International Law and former President of the Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council. Family and early career Surakiart grew up in Bangkok. His father was Sunthorn Sathirathai, former Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Thai Ministry of Finance, and his mother was Kuakoon Sawat-chuto Sathirathai, Professor in French literature at Chulalongkorn University. Surakiart graduated with a First Class (valedictorian) degree in law from Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. He earned two master's degrees: one in law (LL.M.) from Harvard Law School with a thesis on human rights, and another in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. Surakiart was the first Thai to earn a doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. His doctoral thesis, "An Understanding of the Relationship Among International Legal Discourse About Development, Third World Countries, and International Peace," (1985) explored the global trade law regime from the perspective of the third world. He later co-edited Third World Attitudes Toward International Law: An Introduction (1987) and authored various articles on law and development including "Peace and Security: The Challenge and the Promise", 41 Texas International Law Journal 513 (2006). From the late 1980s until the late 1990s, Surakiart taught in the Faculty of Law at Chulalongkorn University and ultimately became Dean. Career in Thai politics In 1995, Dr. Surakiart became Thailand's youngest Finance Minister under Prime Minister Banharn Silapa-Archa. Surakiart's supporters maintain that although he inherited a national economy beset by structural challenges that ultimately exposed it to the Thai financial crisis, Dr. Surakiart designed and implemented reforms that, while deeply unpopular, moved the economy in the right direction and have become an essential part of Thailand's economic policy. Nevertheless, he resigned less than a year after his appointment over his handling of the collapse of the Bangkok Bank of Commerce. After his tenure at the Finance Ministry, Surakiart went on to serve as Vice-Chairman of the Advisory Council on Economic and Foreign Affairs under Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh until 1997.