Kishore Mahbubani
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Kishore Mahbubani (b. 1949, Singapore) is dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. From 1971 to 2004 he served in the Singaporean Foreign Service, ending up as Singapore's Ambassador to the United Nations. In that role he served as president of the United Nations Security Council in January 2001 and May 2002. According to his website, his earlier postings included "Cambodia (where he served during the war in 1973-74), Malaysia and Washington, DC," and he was Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Ministry from 1993 to 1998. He is currently in the Board of Governors of the Institute of Policy Studies. Mahbubani has also served on the boards of leading institutes and think tanks in Singapore, such as the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, the Institute of Policy Studies, the Lee Kuan Yew Exchange Fellowship and the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.
The President's Scholarship was awarded to Mahbubani in 1967, for him to delve into philosophy as an undergraduate in University of Singapore (now known as the National University of Singapore or NUS). Later in 1976, he also obtained a Master's degree in philosophy and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1995, both from Dalhousie University. In addition, he was a fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University in 1991-92.
Mahbubani is best known outside Singapore for his writings in journals such as Foreign Affairs and in the books Can Asians Think? and Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust between America and the World. His articles have appeared in several leading journals and newspapers outside of Singapore, such as The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
He is the son of immigrants from Pakistan.
In 2006 he was appointed Chair of the United World College of South East Asia board of governors. Mahbubani spoke at the graduation ceremony for the class of 2007, focusing on the competitive advantage they now have as graduates of a United World College in Asia.
In 2008, he was interviewed on BBC Television's HardTalk. He asserted that Asia was ascending at a time the West, in particular the United States, was declining. He rationalised this by explaining that the West was prone to interfere in the affairs of foreign countries whereas Asians were not.
Mahbubani lives in Singapore which though multi-racial is predominantly ethnic Han Chinese and very sympathetic to the econonic and political rise of China due to the common ethnic Han Chinese background and Singapore government and elite sensing a potential geopolitical shift due to financial crisis and other economic, political and other situations in the West.
He pointed out that one of the greatest developments in human rights, the abolition of torture, is being undermined by some Western states willing to employ or at least countenance the practice. The BBC interviewer argued that he could not be correct since many European countries loudly objected to what the United States was doing in this regard. Mahbubani argued that whilst respect for human rights in many Asian states remains less than perfect, the progress that some Asian states have made towards in some fields that could be considered indicators of development of human rights, this could be contrasted with the disappointing recent erosion of human rights in the West.
[edit] Books
- Can Asians Think? Understanding the Divide Between East and West., Steerforth, 2001, ISBN 978-1-58642033-8; Times Editions; 3rd edition, 2004, ISBN 978-9-81232789-5
- Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust Between America and the World, Perseus Books Group, 2005, ISBN 978-1-58648268-8
- The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East, PublicAffairs, 2008, ISBN 978-1-58648466-8
