Biography
Edward Canuel
Foreign Service Officer; Honorary Professor at Aalborg University and Aarhus University; Adjunct Professor at American University; Associate Member of the Austrian Polar Research Institute
Dr. Edward Canuel is a professor, diplomat, and attorney. He has been a professor at various universities (Aalborg, American, and Aarhus); his teaching and research focus on Arctic and energy law, sustainable development, and security issues. Ed holds a B.A. from Boston College (summa cum laude); a Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School; a Master of Laws from Osgoode Hall in Business Law (where he served subsequently as an Osgoode Visiting Scholar); and a Ph.D. from the University of Oslo (comparative private law, focusing on the energy and finance sectors). Most recently, Ed joined the Austrian Polar Research Institute as an Associate Member.
Ed has been a U.S. diplomat for nearly 20 years. His current diplomatic tour is at the U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Vienna (UNVIE). As the Acting Counselor for International Atomic Energy Agency Affairs, he supervises UNVIE’s Peaceful Uses and Safeguards Sections. Most recently, Ed served in the White House as both the Homeland Security Advisor’s Coordinator for Arctic Affairs and Deputy Senior Director in the National Security Council’s Resilience Directorate. Ed’s prior diplomatic tours include serving as Deputy Office Director in the Bureau of Counterterrorism; Senior Advisor in the Office of the Deputy Secretary of State; Environmental/Energy Trade Negotiator; State Department Visiting Professor (the U.S. Military Academy at West Point); Regional Environmental Officer/Acting Deputy Chief of Mission (Copenhagen); Energy and Economic Officer (Oslo); and Treaty Trader Officer (Toronto). In 2012 and 2017, Ed was selected as the U.S. government’s candidate for the Arctic Council Secretariat’s Executive Director position.
Prior to joining the State Department, Ed practiced corporate, environmental, and commercial real estate law at an international law firm.
