KISHORE MAHBUBANI

Kishore Mahbubani is a veteran diplomat, philosopher, and acclaimed author. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore. His career in diplomacy and academia has taken him from serving as Singapore’s chargé d’affaires in war-torn Cambodia (1973–74) and President of the United Nations Security Council (January 2001, May 2002) to founding dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (2004–2017).

Mahbubani writes and speaks extensively on the rise of Asia, geopolitics, and global governance. His seven books — the most recent being Has the West Lost It? — and his articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, and Foreign Affairs have earned him worldwide recognition as “the thinker of the Asian century.” Since his first book, Can Asians Think? (1998), he has challenged conventional wisdom on the major issues of our time.

He has been listed among the world’s 100 most influential public intellectuals by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines, as well as among the 50 people shaping the debate on the future of capitalism by the Financial Times. In October 2019, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.