Dr. Nguyen is Deputy Director-General of the Institute for South China Sea/East Sea Studies, at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. Prior to joining the Diplomatic Academy in 2008, Dr. Nguyen was a full time diplomat, serving as the director of the political affairs division in the ASEAN department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In that capacity, he participated extensively in several regional summits and gained hands on experience in many regional processes and issues. He was a member of the Vietnam High Level Task Force delegation that negotiated the ASEAN Charter and also participated in drafting elements of the Code of Conduct as part of Vietnam’s delegation in official track and informal track negotiations among regional think tanks. He also served as head of the ASEAN Standing Committee division at the ASEAN department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from July 2000 to July 2001, during which period Vietnam presided over the ASEAN Standing Committee. Dr. Nguyen’s areas of research are East Asia security and cooperation, particularly maritime security, East Asia regionalism and ASEAN affairs. Dr. Nguyen received his B.A degree from the National Economic University of Vietnam, an M.A. degree from Birmingham University in the UK, and a Ph.D. from the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.