Kishore Mahbubani

Kishore Mahbubani is a Singapore diplomat and geopolitical consultant who previously served as Singapore Permanent Representative to the United Nations between 1984 and 1989, and between 1998 and 2004. He also served as the President of the United Nations Security Council between 2001 and 2002. He joined academia in 2004 and was appointed the founding dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. In 2021, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine established the Kishore Professorship in Medicine and Health Policy and 2019 saw him being elected as a member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He has chosen to dedicate his retirement years to try and help maintain peace in Asia. He believes that the 21st century will be the Asian century as Asia returns to its historical level of power and influence on the world stage. This has led to the launch of the Asian Peace Programme, housed in the Asia Research Institute at NUS. The programme hopes to help create a better understanding of the threats to peace in Asia and come up with practical ideas to ameliorate tensions and increase cooperation instead.

In August 2024, he released his latest memoir Living the Asian Century: An Undiplomatic Memoir in hopes of helping readers better understand the phenomenal success story of both Singapore and the region over the past few decades.